Older Persons Scams Awareness & Aftercare project gets go-ahead

Age UK Cheshire East’s plans to support vulnerable older victims of scams and doorstep crime moved one step closer this week with the announcement that funding had now been secured to enable the project to go ahead.  Thanks to the very generous donations from the National Lottery’s Community Fund and the Garfield Weston Foundation, the project will now become a reality.

The project has been devised as a response to the many reports being received about local older people being scammed out of their life savings, or conned by unsolicited callers purporting to offer to undertake ‘urgent work’ to their property, and then subsequently charging thousands of pounds for minor or sub-standard work. In some cases, older people are being conned out of many thousands of pounds by tricksters who prey on their vulnerabilities and exploit them to part with their retirement funds.

Working closely with Cheshire East Council’s Trading Standards, the charity has developed a two-year project, which will see an individual charged with providing much needed aftercare for older victims of such crimes, as well as working with teams of volunteers to raise awareness of scams and doorstep crime in the local community.  Over the life time of the project, it is anticipated that it will work with many hundreds of victims, ensuring that our communities’ awareness of the issue is improved to make local older people that much harder to target.

Damon Taylor, Chief Executive of Age UK Cheshire East commented “We are really excited about this new project, as unfortunately we know there are many older people who fall prey to such crimes and desperate need additional support.  We will now be able to work with older victims to ensure that they are not victimised again.”

A key element of the new project will be utilising a team of local volunteers who will help disseminate information around their community about scams and doorstep crimes taking place in their local areas, as well as feeding back information on other possible scams.

Damon Taylor concluded “We’d love to hear from anyone interested in volunteering with us on this project, and ensuring that the more vulnerable older members of our community are protected from these terrible crimes.”

The project is due to start in April 2020.