Age Scotland sheds 25 per cent of staff; most are over 50

Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged Scotland have shed 25 per cent of staff, with most over 50, in the run-up to their official launch next month as a single entity, Age Scotland.

Next month, Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged Scotland will officially become Age Scotland, after months of restructuring following the merger last year.

As part of the restructuring process the total number of staff who are employed has been reduced from 53 to 40 across Scotland. Most of the people affected are in their 50s.

Lindsay Scott, communications and campaigns manager for Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland, said that the vast majority of those who left either accepted voluntary redundancy or early retirement packages "which were considerably above the statutory minimum".

“People did have to apply for new posts in the merged structure. I did myself," he said. "But all of those who were unsuccessful were offered other jobs elsewhere in the organisation."

However, because this required them to relocate, two of the staff were unable or unwilling to do that, and so were made compulsorily redundant.

Scott admitted that "most of those whose jobs had been affected had served the charities well for many years and would have been in their 50s.

"But that is hardly unusual in the voluntary sector," he added.