Calls to elderly hotline soar as charity moves to ease fears of the Scots left homealone

Age Scotland revealed how calls have gone up from 100 to 300 a day. Chief executive Brian Sloan said the ability to take more calls is thanks to an £80,000 cash injection from the Scottish Government to help them cope with heightened need from vulnerable and isolated pensioners.

Age Scotland is using the investment to reach an ultimate target of 1,500 calls per day. So far, call handlers have heard from hundreds of worried older people asking about ever ything from displaying the symptoms of the virus, to concerns about going out for shopping and collecting prescriptions to fears of being targeted by scammers.

The charity says it already has anecdotal evidence of criminals posing as good Samaritans, offering to do shopping for the elderly and disappearing with their money. Mr Sloan said: “We have been asked to get to a level where we can handle 1,500 calls a day. This is our number one priority. We have identified a workforce and are phasing people in that we can move straight on to the phones. It is phased because we don’t know how long this crisis could last. “Previously we handled on average 100 calls each day, just now we have 300 calls a day. We offer information and advice on things like benefit checks, wills, and power of attorney – but now about 70% of our calls are coronavirus related. They range from quite simple ones to some quite distressing calls.

“We had an older person who seemed extremely distressed. We are not medically trained but from the symptoms, you could suspect that they had the virus. In this instance we would be giving out the Covid- 19 helpline for medical support, and we ask what other support they might have, or advise they phone 999.

“Fo r all of us these are unprecedented times and we are experiencing new types of calls and acting as quickly as possible. “Callers can be concerned about going out to the shops to pick up food supplies, or going out for essential medication. They are unable to see family and friends, they want to know who they should let into their house and who they shouldn’t.

“We have anecdotal evidence of people knocking on doors, saying they’ll get shopping for the elderly occupant, taking the money and then not returning. We know older people are preyed upon by scams, but this is the lowest of the low.”

Age Scotland is using its £ 80,000 windfall to invest in technology that will allow the office- based callhandling operation to become a virtual call centre, with staff working from home in line with coronavirus guidelines. It also affords the charity the ability “to scale up” to handle more calls. Staff who have advisory skills but are engaged elsewhere can be redeployed quickly to man phones. But the chief executive said: “Everybody has a part to play. This is the most vulnerable sector of our community.”

He applauded supermarkets who opened early to accommodate older customers or kept online shopping delivery slots for them.

Mr Sloan added: “One thing that has been overwhelming is the offers of help but we have to be careful not end to end up with a Grenfell type situation, where everybody wants

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