The increase in financial abuse of the elderly: what, why, how?

In considering the impact of UK’s increasing ageing population experts are questioning whether current legislation protects those who are most vulnerable to financial abuse. Indeed a quick online search reveals a wide array of statistics which make for a depressing read.  If we accept that persons aged 65 and above are defined as ‘elderly’ then there are almost 12 million elderly people in the UK .  Of those nearly 3.8 million individuals live alone.  These individuals are much more likely to suffer from multiple long term health conditions or disabilities which can often result in a relationship of dependency with a friend neighbour relative or carer. 

In addition an NHS study published in 2018 stated that the number of elderly people in the UK with dementia was estimated to be 644 903. This means that 1 in every 130 elderly people has a medical diagnosis of dementia with untold numbers of people in the pre-diagnosis stage.  Even more alarming is the fact that 413 500 elderly people in England and Wales experience some form of abuse every year.  In short there...

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