A home help company in Gelderland is offering to make phone calls to elderly people on behalf of their relatives for €65 a month.

The fee covers either a daily five-minute call or a 30-minute conversation once a week on a topic chosen by the elderly person.

‘Of course sons and daughters do phone their parents and that is what I prefer,’ Jeanette Mertens from Kruiswerk Achterhoek told the Volkskrant. ‘But they already do a lot for their parents and they often live a long way away. It is reassuring for them if we can take over things.’

The caller will have a background in the care industry and will be able to alert the authorities if an elderly person does not pick up the phone or changes behaviour, Mertens said.