As a specialist community legal centre the majority of calls we receive regarding elder abuse relate to financial exploitation or manipulation. In the 2014-2015 financial year Financial Rights gave legal advice or financial counselling to 3,383 callers who were over 50 years old. This makes up over 25% of the total advice calls we receive from consumers of financial services.
Financial Rights can provide advice in relation to elder abuse where there is a Financial Service Provider or product involved, such as a bank, bank account or credit card. Unfortunately there are a number of situations that would constitute elder abuse when we cannot give legal advice or financial counselling primarily because our funding is not sufficient. Our submission makes several recommendations regarding the lack of funded services for older Australians with questions about their finances, investments or super.
Our submission also draws attention to several financial products that we believe are inherently risky or even abusively unsuitable for older Australians including reverse mortgages, funeral insurance, payday loans and pawnbroking. We also recommend that financial institutions should take on more responsibility to try to prevent elder financial abuse whenever possible.
