Relevant to our senior readers Financial abuse
Australians are living longer, and even the most dilapidated of their homes is now worth a fortune, which sounds like a good news story until you begin reading about how the elderly are being abused, harassed and blackmailed by impatient kids and other family members — or even carers — who want to get their hands on the money.
It’s not a new phenomenon. On the contrary, most people know some poor soul who got ripped off by greedy relatives near the end of their life. But a new survey on elder financial abuse, conducted on behalf of State Trustees Victoria, makes plain the scale of the problem.
Among the startling results: 91 per cent of respondents agreed that it was “easy for people to take advantage of older friends or family and exploit them for financial gain”; one in five knew somebody they suspected had been a victim of financial abuse; and one in 25 older people said they had experienced it themselves.
Even worse, in the vast majority of cases the perpetrator was a family member, with adult daughters accounting for 25 per cent of the reports, followed very closely by adult sons (24 per cent); but spouses were also in there (17 per cent), as were carers (4 per cent) and neighbours (3 per cent.)
Australian Today
Must be happening mostly in Sydney and Melbourne Brocky where property is now unaffordable to most
parents who can are helping their kids with deposits