Andy Kaye has had the privilege of working for Demos (a centre-left think tank); for Age UK, for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and he now leads the Policy and Campaigns team at growing older people’s charity, Independent Age.
Major lobbying and campaign successes have included influencing the Department for Work and Pensions test for the Personal Independence Payment, the new disability benefit introduced in 2013, so that it better reflects the day-to-day difficulties experienced by blind and partially sighted people; and successfully lobbying the Department of Health to introduce improved rules to protect the families of the poorest pensioners from paying additional fees for care home places that it is the responsibility of councils to meet.
He is the author of a number of campaign reports for disability and older people’s charities, including The Tipping Point: The Human and Economic Costs of Cutting Disabled People’s Support (2012) and Facing Blindness Alone (2013). In 2014, Andrew worked with the respected International Longevity Centre-UK think tank to produce Isolation: the emerging crisis for older men and alongside the Strategic Society Centre to produce The Bigger Picture: Understanding disability and care in England’s older population.
He has appeared on BBC Radio, ITV News and Sky News on subjects as diverse as ageism, the emotional impact of sight loss and closures to Remploy factories.
