From Action on Elder Abuse to Hourglass#
Hourglass is the working name of Hourglass (Safer Ageing). It spent more than 30 years as Action on Elder Abuse and describes itself as the UK's only charity focused on the abuse and neglect of older people. It recognises six forms of abuse: domestic, physical, psychological, economic, sexual and neglect. Its aim, in its own words, is "safer ageing": older people living independently and able to trust those around them. It also works on policy across all four UK nations, including a campaign for adult safeguarding law in Northern Ireland.
Getting in touch#
Hourglass's services page lists a free, confidential helpline open 24 hours a day, a text number, an email address, live chat with a professional and a chatbot. The helpline number does not appear on phone bills. Texts do appear on your bill, but are not identified as Hourglass. Its other services run on weekdays in office hours. Through its Community Response programme it runs local hubs offering face-to-face support, in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Sussex, south London and the Thames Valley so far; the helpline team can transfer you to one.
Anyone can call, whether you are the older person, a relative, a neighbour or a professional.
Warning signs that involve names and papers#
Hourglass's page on financial abuse lists signs that someone is misusing a position of trust. Several concern names and signatures:
- signatures on cheques or documents that do not look like the older person's, or that appear when they can no longer write;
- extra names added to a bank account;
- sudden changes to a will, or a will made out of nowhere;
- misuse of a power of attorney, deputyship or appointeeship.
Its advice to older people includes keeping in touch with friends, using more than one person to post your mail, talking to a lawyer about future arrangements for your money and property, and checking any document with someone independent before signing it.
Names later in life#
Older people change their names for ordinary reasons: after being widowed, after a divorce late in life, or to drop a name tied to a painful past. A deed poll is a personal document. GOV.UK's wording is in the first person, and the person whose name is changing signs it while two adults watch and sign as witnesses. Hourglass's advice fits it well: read it with someone you trust who has nothing to gain, and choose witnesses outside any family dispute.
If you have made a lasting power of attorney, the Office of the Public Guardian needs to hear about a new name, from you while you have capacity or from one of your attorneys, with a copy of the deed. A widow or widower who wants to keep the married name need do nothing at all. If you are worried that an older relative is being pushed into signing papers, the Hourglass helpline is the place to start.
More on names later in life#
- Changing your name when you are widowed: keeping or returning to a name.
- Changing your name on a lasting power of attorney.
- Changing your name on your State Pension.
- Charities that help after domestic abuse.
This page describes what Hourglass publishes on its website, read on 26 October 2026. Hourglass has not reviewed it, and listing it here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
