Research reports & briefings

Our new report, Not enough to live on, calls on the Scottish Government to address pensioner poverty.

Read our toolkit to find out what we’ve learnt about good practice in promoting the uptake of Pension Credit at the local level.

Two in five (40%) pensioners spent at least one year of the last decade in poverty.

Read our report showing how many people move in and out of (or stay in) poverty during later life, the reasons for it, and what policy changes can help people exit poverty.

Read our policy briefing highlighting the low uptake of Pension Credit.

Our new briefing identifies approaches local authorities can take to ensure that they are delivering information and advice about adult social care that is effective for everyone who might need it.

Read our new research on older people's experiences of waiting for surgery.

Read about our new research on older people’s experiences of loneliness during COVID-19 undertaken when co-chairs for the DCMS Tackling Loneliness Network.

Read about our new research on local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group approaches to commissioning bereavement services.

Read about our research into how free personal care is working in Scotland, and some of the key learnings for social care reform in England.

Read our new research illustrating older people's experiences of, and attitudes towards, mental health in later life

Read our new report and learn about the challenges facing seldom heard groups of older people in England.

Read our new research showing the impact of low take-up of Pension Credit on health and social care spending.

Read about the the context, the issue, and what action must be taken.

This report, including new Freedom of Information research, highlights the importance of introducing a statutory appeals process for adult social care decisions. 

New analysis reveals how many older people have had to sell their homes to pay for care.

This 2019 report highlights the persistent low take-up of Pension Credit and calls on the Government to make sure this vital benefit gets to everyone who is entitled to it.

Find out what the Pension Credit situation is for your constituency.

Find out how introducing free personal care would eliminate ’catastrophic care costs’ for everyone, whether they are receiving domiciliary care or are in residential care

Find out which areas in England are offering the worst quality care

Nine different policy options have been proposed.

This report analyses national data and personal experiences of older private renters and compares it with that of homeowners and social renters.

Find out which areas in England are offering the worst quality care

In launching the Doing Care Differently blog series, Independent Age has helped to illuminate the challenges and opportunities facing our ageing society.

This new policy briefing examines key aspects of the Care Act 2014 and local authorities’ performance, policies and practice.

Our new report with the IPPR, the progressive policy think tank, shows that changes to benefits are unlikely to raise enough money to fill the funding gap in isolation.

Find out which areas in England are best for offering good quality care homes.

This report follows up from our 2016 report, Shining a light on care: helping people make better care home choices.

This report looks at both the information available when choosing a care home and what quality in care homes should look like.

This report looks at the incomes of older people aged 75 and over.

This report looks at future workforce shortages in adult social care in England to take account of the EU referendum result.

This report looks at the quality of information and advice local authorities are providing on adult social care.

This report looks at how and why families avoid talking about challenges they may face in older age.

This report looks at how local authorities have performed in the first year of the Care Act 2014.

This report provides our vision of what we need to do to make the UK the best country to grow older in by 2030.

This seminar review gives an overview of the discussion at a research review we held looking at the information that is currently available on quality and standards in care homes.

This report includes essays from experts and politicians on how the UK prepares and pays for an ageing society.

This report looks at the lives of older carers.

This report looks at the past, present and future role of migrant labour in the adult social care workforce.

This report looks at how many older people struggle with daily tasks and how many older people get the support available to them.

This report looks at loneliness among older men.

This report looks at the issues in England’s residential care market and the potential impact on the market of changes due to be introduced in April 2016 as part of the Care Act (since postponed until 2020).

This report looks at the challenges facing 13 local authorities when trying to monitor care home top-up fees.

This report looks at the best and worst scenarios for older people in the UK in 2030.