Link-Age
Link-Age finished its consultation stage on the 26 November 2004. Results of the consultation have helped to shape our long-term strategy for older people entitled Opportunity Age: Meeting the challenges of ageing in the 21st century. This publication was launched on 23 March 2005.
- You can read the Consultation Summary (131KB)
here.
Developing networks of services for older people
The publication, ‘Link-Age: developing networks of services for older people’, outlines the steps being taken to meet the 2001 manifesto commitment to develop ‘third age services’.
The publication comes in three parts: an overview document, a document explaining what ‘Joint Teams’ are and how to set one up and a document explaining how Partner organisations can take benefit claims by setting up ‘Alternative Offices’. You can read the documents here.
The strategy, published in this document, joins up services across and beyond government and will simplify how people are able to access the services and help they need. The document is published by Department for Work and Pensions in collaboration with the Local Government Association and other government departments.
Steps are already being taken by local authorities and The Pension Service, these include:
- Working together to form 'Joint Teams' where staff operate as a single team, undertaking single visits, taking claims across the range of benefits and, at the same time, undertaking financial assessments for services.
- Setting up Alternative Offices where offices are authorised by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to receive and verify social security claims made by older people. There are currently two categories of Alternative Office:
- the local office of a voluntary organisation;
- the office(s) of a local authority which administers Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.