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Age Concern England has joined forces with Barclays and Abbey

National to offer two new IT initiatives to get elderly people

online.

Barclays will fund four branded buses kitted out as state-of-the-art

internet workstations with wheelchair access, which will visit rural

locations on behalf of the charity.

Each one will have a fixed itinerary so that people will be able to plan

ahead to use their services.

Abbey National is backing a separate initiative called Open House, where

it will install terminals and internet access for older people at 25 Age

Concern centres across the UK. These will include Age Concern offices,

shops, and village and parish halls.

The centres will be staffed by qualified Age Concern volunteers, many of

whom trained at Age Concern 'silver surfer' projects run in conjunction

with Microsoft.

Abbey National will promote the campaign through posters at the Age

Concern centres and door-drops in local communities. Information about

online banking will also be available in the centres.

Open House is part of UK Online, the government initiative to get

everyone in the UK using computers by 2005.

"Encouraging older people to learn about computers is a clear strategy

for us," said Emma Aldridge, Age Concern's IT project manager. "It helps

them stay in touch with family and friends."