The October edition of Neighbours Know How is out now.
This month leads with Pension Credit Week of Action. Up to 910,000 households entitled to Pension Credit are not claiming it — and East End Community Foundation’s independent evaluation, just published, shows the scale of the problem locally. Their programme has secured more than £2.5 million in financial gains for over 800 older people in Tower Hamlets and Newham. Most of it is recurring annual income that has transformed people’s daily lives.
This edition also carries our statement for National Hate Crime Awareness Week, backed by new academic evidence. Age is still not a protected characteristic under hate crime law in England and Wales. Only 6% of older people who experience abuse report it to police. We set out what we know, what the research shows, and what we are asking of professionals and commissioners.
Also in this edition: the National Care Service announcement explained, the Casey Commission’s direction of travel, the King’s Fund’s call for six immediate changes to social care, new research linking loneliness to cognitive decline across 175,000 adults, evidence on social prescribing and befriending, and local events to signpost to the people you support.