Charity scraps £22m work scheme

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A charity has apologised after spending more than £22m on a failed membership scheme preparing people for retirement.

Age Concern said it was "desperately sorry" for scrapping its Heyday scheme which attracted 44,000 of a projected 300,000 members in its first year.

Refunds will be offered to anyone partway through their £26 annual subscription, the charity told the BBC.

The Charity Commission said the scheme was set up in good faith but was poorly researched, planned and implemented.

'Very sorry'

Age Concern's director general Gordon Lishman told BBC Radio 4's You And Yours programme: "My trustees have much regret we found ourselves in this position. I'm personally very sorry."

He said most of the money spent on the scheme was from investments and trading, not public donations.

Heyday was launched on 30 May 2006 to support people about to retire and aimed to have three million members within five years.

But the Charity Commission, which published a report into Heyday earlier this month, said the scheme currently had just over 40,000 members.

Age Concern and its trading subsidiary Age Concern Enterprises Limited spent £22m on Heyday up to March last year, the report said

Most of the cash went on staff costs, a magazine and website for subscribers, IT equipment and systems support, it added.

During the same period Age Concern Enterprises Limited received membership income of just £700,000, the report found.

Age Concern has merged with the charity Help the Aged. Heyday will be scrapped on 1 April.