Past Projects - Know Your Rights

The Know Your Rights project has now ended. To find out about our current campaign to make London an Age-friendly City, please click here.

With one in six older Londoners estimated to be living in poverty in 2015, the Mayor of London partnered with Age UK London to help pensioners to check that they were receiving all the benefits they were entitled to as part of the annual Know Your Rights campaign.  

At the time, the Greater London Authority estimated that around 200,000 older Londoners were living in poverty and one in three were missing out on Pension Credit worth an average of £23 a week, or £1,200 a year, simply because they were unaware they were eligible for it, or because they felt too embarrassed to make a claim. This money can make a real difference, when it comes to being able to heat their homes during the winter months and budgeting for the weekly food shop.

Although the number of pensioners living in poverty in the capital had fallen by 100,000 in the preceeding decade, older people in London were much more likely to be living in material deprivation than anywhere else in the country in 2015. Nearly three times the proportion of pensioners living in inner London were unable to afford basics like having a warm winter coat, being able to keep their home damp free and having a regular haircut.

In partnership with Age UK London, the Know Your Rights campaign helped pensioners to claim an estimated £1.2 million in benefits that would have otherwise gone unclaimed in 2014. A year on, the 2015 campaign aimed to ensure older Londoners didn't miss out on Pension Credit and other benefits they could be eligible for.

The Know Your Rights project has now ended. To find out about our current campaign to make London an Age-friendly City, please click here.