Common questions about Age UK's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Age UK a good charity? +
Age UK scores 80 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 52% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is Age UK a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Age UK as a registered charity (charity number 1128267). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1128267&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is Age UK's charity number? +
Age UK's charity number is 1128267. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is Age UK's charity rating? +
Age UK scores 80 out of 100 on CharityCompare (4 stars — Good). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does Age UK have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Age UK. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Age UK? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 52% of Age UK's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are Age UK's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 24% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 25% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Age UK. Age UK's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 93 employees paid more than £60,000, including 15 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £250,001–£300,000 (2 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Age UK receive? +
Age UK reported £132m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are Age UK's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-01-27). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Age UK based? +
Age UK's registered contact address is in London (EC3N 2LB). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, with a focus on international aid.
How much is Age UK's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Age UK's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 93 employees paid more than £60,000, including 15 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £250,001–£300,000 (2 employees). Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does Age UK's money come from? +
Age UK reported £132m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £67m (51%), trading and fundraising events £60m (46%), charitable activities £4.2m (3%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £26m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Age UK? +
The register records Age UK as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are Age UK's trustees paid? +
Age UK's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Age UK registered as a charity? +
Age UK was entered on the register on 25 February 2009. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 06825798).
How does CharityCompare score Age UK? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Age UK's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and Age UK's most recent accounts cover 2025. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.