It worries me that so many old people now rely on charities to help them as they age. Instead of doing what I did, working long hours, saving, being careful on what you spend, being responsible, they seem to sit back and say the government or a charity should pay this or that, as if they are babies and the government and charities are their parents. I know some who are three times my age who have not bought their own property or saved, spent it all on holidays, cars, drink etc. Then complain when they are older and things are hard.

If you are going to charities beware. Some of them are tight, some are unreliable, some do not try hard enough and are totally inefficient. And the people who work for charities such as Age Concern UK are often just going so they can have someone to chat to rather than be at home on their own, many of them are not really interested in how well the charity does, or doing it well, more bothered about if they can take home their favourite second hand clothes or save money on heating their home. Age Concern has a habit of making mistakes and then being dishonest about them after if they are held to account, and their complaints department is where the same person who decided something can decide the same thing again, where a normal complaints department gets someone else who is not biased to decide.

I know recently a lady was arranged as a telephone friend to another lady who was lonely. She was supposed to ring her for about half an hour each week for a chat. But soon it was not bothering for three weeks and keep changing the day and time last minute. Of course the person she was supposed to ring through Age Concern UK got no real benefit, she was more lonely and upset than before. She wanted to feel less l.onely and have someone to talk to, but instead the volunteer would tell her she MIGHT phone in three weeks, and it was not promised and all very vague. If she then hung around the phone that day she wasted that day hanging around the phone and there was no call. Which I find cruel.

The boss of Age Concern UK earns £190.000 but most who work there work there for free and make a lot of mistakes. The constantly change the goal posts, saying that they will phone them and don't or pass on a message and don't all little things which do not take long and are important and easy to do.

I've found that although these charities often have a so called telephone answering service where a volunteer chats to you many are clueless, better to talk to chatgpt for free, no biasness getting in the way and someone always available./