Giving you Information and Advice

Age UK York provides free, confidential and impartial information and advice on a range of issues relating to older people and those who care for and support them.  In particular we specialise in:

• welfare benefits advice for those over retirement age, including working out benefit entitlements and offering assistance to complete claim forms (Age UK have a calculator which can advise if you may be entitled
• helping people identify the care and support they need, including help accessing Social Services and advice on how to pay for care and support
• advising on housing issues, including information and advice on the different types of housing for older people who need more support or want to move nearer to family or friends
• advising on the services, support, groups, activities and concessions available locally and how to access these. Live Well York also has useful local information
• information on local approved traders through the Home Services Directory
• Referring or signposting to other appropriate organisations as required
• advising those who are finding it hard to make ends meet or are struggling to pay their bills and looking into any possible grants are available
• helping people to make complaints or challenge decisions about welfare benefits, social services, health services and energy providers

Our service delivery is mainly telephone based but since the change in restrictions around Covid 19, we are keen to get out more in the community to outreach events – see the Activities and Events tab for more information – and our small team of welfare benefits advisers are resuming home visits to those who find it difficult to manage long telephone calls, particularly for benefit claims. We are happy to discuss the best option of contact for you, but are still very much aware that Covid is around and will be cautious in our approach.  

Information and Advice Service Leaflet  

This is, however, a very busy time and we are operating a reduced service while we recruit and train new staff (August 2023). As such we are prioritising our help to those who have no one else they can rely on to help claim benefits and who are unable to seek support through outreach sessions/use the phone/use the internet to access external support easily.

If you do have access to the internet then please read our DIY information on benefits which provides  guidance on potential entitlement and how to make claims (or you may have someone you trust who can help with this). Please complete the form below and we can send you the DIY information.  

Please do not hesitate to come back to us if you still need help after reading this – we are here to help. Other useful numbers for support with benefits in York are:

City of York Council (CYC) (2-4 week waiting list to complete benefit claims)

01904 552044

Citizens Advice York (CAY) have an approximate 1 week waiting list to complete benefit claims but do not do home visits

08082 787895

Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY) have an approximate 4 week waiting list to complete benefit claims

01904 676200

Carers Centre York if you are, or have a carer

01904 715490

Please see our Service Agreement for how we can help, our standards and procedures.

Useful Phone Numbers

Priority Services Register

We are working in collaboration with Yorkshire Water to support people to register for the Priority Services Register. They can help with

Braille and audio letters
Letting you know earlier about planned works
A constant supply of water
Concerns over callers
Nominating someone else to manage your account
Help with reading your meter

You can find out about the Priority Services Register here.