Call to Halt Financial Abuse of Seniors

Michael Madigan, CourierMail.com

June 15, 2009

Australia

Co-ordinator of Lifeline's Elder Abuse Prevention Unit Les Jackson said thousands of elderly were living in fear and shame as loved ones preyed on their vulnerability to extract money.

Over $14 million was reported to the unit as being ripped off from the elderly in the most recent financial year.

But most of the abuse goes unreported.

The EAPU said a realistic assessment of losses was about $97 million a year, but the knock-on effects, including legal, social and medical expenses, could cost taxpayers far more.

"The perpetrators are often adult sons and daughters and many cases are never identified, making it difficult to identify and respond to the abuse," Mr Jackson said.

"Self-reporting callers we speak to are often frightened. Many suffer guilt, humiliation, shame or reluctance to dob in a family member."

Last year the EAPU received more than 700 new notifications from people concerned at the abuse of an older person.

But Mr Jackson said the callers were rarely the victims, who feared being labelled a "nuisance" or being placed in a nursing home as retaliation.

Lifeline's elder abuse unit is using today's United Nations-backed World Elder Abuse Awareness Day to throw the spotlight on a largely hidden problem expected to worsen as the global financial crisis deepens.

Commonly, cases reported in Queensland involved an elderly parent lending money to a child to build an extension on a home - with the understanding that the extension would act as future accommodation. 

The extension would be completed and the child would then instead send their parent to a nursing home. Elderly parents have then been too humiliated to complain.

In other cases, children have taken charge of their elderly parents' financial affairs and spent any money without having consulted their parents.

A report into the problem commissioned by the EAPU says reports of such abuse will continue mainly due to our ageing population. But financial services, including banks, are being trained in detection.

The report recommends the Queensland Government provide seed funding for an annual information, planning and review framework, and also seeks input from researchers on how best to monitor elder abuse.

Anyone can contact the elder abuse hotline on 1300 651192

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