Campaign aims to combat financial abuse of elderly

A national campaign to help stamp out financial abuse of vulnerable adults gets under way today against a backdrop of a 44% rise in the number of alleged cases.

Chair of the National Safeguarding Committee (NSC) Patricia Rickard-Clarke said abuse could be as subtle as spending a portion of a person’s pension as a perceived ‘reward’ for helping with their care. Or it could be highly calculated, involving acts of theft, coercion, fraud or intimidation.

The NSC’s Lift the Lid campaign is in the context of 1,645 cases of alleged adult financial abuse reported to the HSE National Safeguarding Office since it started collating data in January 2016.