Scotland’s two main charities for the elderly will be relaunched next month as single body Age Scotland, but only after shedding 25% of their staff.

Most of those who lost their jobs are aged over 50 and found themselves facing the same employment issues they had hitherto been giving advice on. Two members of staff have suffered compulsory redundancy.

Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged in Scotland took the decision to merge some time ago and since April last year have been operating under that joint title (Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland).

But from the middle of April they will be known as Age Scotland and will seek “to represent all of Scotland’s older people and provide a united voice”.

Across the UK, all Age Concern national bodies will unite with Help the Aged,

creating four new charities in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

North of the border, the two organisations have moved in together, with Help the Aged in Scotland staff moving into the larger premises of Age Concern Scotland in Edinburgh’s Causewayside.

However, there have been other changes. Before the relaunch a major restructuring process will be completed which will result in the total number of staff who are employed being reduced from 53 to 40 across Scotland – from the Highlands to the Borders.

The charities insist it has been necessary because inevitably there was some duplication between the two operations.

Lindsay Scott, communications and campaigns co-ordinator for Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland, explained: “Following the merger there has been a reorganisation which has resulted in the total number of full-time posts between the two organisations falling from 53 to 40 by the end of March.

“The vast majority of those who left either accepted a 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. But all of those who were unsuccessful were offered other jobs elsewhere in the organisation.

“But this required them to relocate and two of our employees were not able or willing to do that so they represented the only two compulsory redundancies in the whole restructuring exercise. 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.”

One of the biggest changes in the day-to-day operation of the two charities will be that field workers will be working from their own homes under the new organisation Age Scotland.

“That was the practice of Help the Aged in the past whereas Age Concern fieldwork staff were all office-based,” said Mr Scott.

He said that the restructuring process had started before the recession had really begun to bite, but as the economy recovered the hope was that more staff could be employed.

One person who left the organisation recently, but did not want to be named, said: “I know this is happening up and down the country, but when you spend many years of your life trying to help older people in areas such as employment, only to find yourself facing the same problems, it is quite difficult to accept.

“They say it is not personal, but when you are no longer needed while others are, you do take it personally.

“Especially because people who work for a charity or a voluntary organisation always do more than they have to; they always put in longer hours, always go the extra mile.”