MORE than 1,100 Lancashire pensioners called a national advice line last year. SeniorLine, run by Help the Aged, took 1,153 calls on a range of issues.

The biggest proportion of callers had questions about community care - 29 per cent - followed by queries about welfare or disability benefits, at 28 per cent.

Thirteen per cent of calls were about social or personal issues, such as legal and family matters, 10 per cent on housing and nine per cent on finance.

SeniorLine manager Elizabeth Lodge said: "Care is a major issue for our callers and on SeniorLine we make sure older people know their rights and have the most up-to-date information to make the best choices."

Calls to SeniorLine are free, thanks to support from British Gas. It is open to older people, their carers and friends. It can be contacted on 0808 800 6565 from 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.