Time alone will tell whether the Sun has carried out a vital public service with their story that the charity Age UK allegedly accepted a £6 million ‘bung’ from the German power giant E.ON in order to promote a more expensive energy tariff to pensioners. If the story turns out to be true, someone at Age UK has been an idiot. If it is not true, the Sun has carried out an immense disservice by damaging the name of a vital charity. I cannot see, in this instance, how the truth might lie somewhere in the middle. Not possible, that.
Age UK has launched the MPs’ defence by ‘denying any wrongdoing’. Remember when MPs were caught fiddling their expenses, they denied ‘wrongdoing’ and that they had ‘not broken any rules’. Well, no. With their lax rules, MPs could claim pretty well what they liked without breaking rules. “I might be a thief, but the rules said it was all right to steal stuff.” That’s all right, then.
The victims in the middle of this are both the senior citizens who depend on Age UK and the workers and volunteers who provide vital services. Because services for senior citizens have been slashed since the financial crash of 2008, charities like Age UK are all they have. Lonely, vulnerable and isolated senior citizens often get no visitors other than from Age UK. They are an amazing charity and now the Sun newspaper has suggested they are a bunch of crooks. If they are or if they aren’t, the certain losers are the old.
We do need to know about this £6 million. Many charities have responsible partnerships with commercial organisations and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some, like the Red Cross, state very clearly that they will happily enter into partnerships but the charity has not just the final say but the only say where the money goes. And quite right too.
I am especially concerned by the comments of Ian Foy, managing director of Age UK Trading. He said: “We always aim to give our customers outstanding value for money. This decision, prompted by the planned tariff changes, will give us the opportunity to review the current situation.”
I am sure there is a good reason for having a ‘managing director of Age UK trading’ but it doesn’t sound right when he works for a charity. And what’s that about, the reference to “our customers?” A charity doesn’t have customers, does it?
Please, OFGEM, investigate what’s happened quickly, come to a swift conclusion and let’s end this sorry situation before the damage gets too deep.
The only people who matter are the senior citizens who have been abandoned by government and society. Without the likes of Age UK they have nothing. That can’t be right, can it?
