Governments accused of allowing elder financial abuse

Australia’s banks are clearly concerned about continuing financial elder abuse and have repeated their call to federal and state governments to get their act together and tear down barriers to united and nationwide action.

National Seniors CEO and head of research, Professor John McCallum, recently attended the national elder abuse conference in Hobart where he shared information about abuse. Professor McCallum said "We frequently hear from people calling into National Seniors, reporting serious financial abuse as well as neglect." 

National Seniors has also been working with the Australian Banking Association (ABA) to address the issue of financial elder abuse in the banking industry and wider society. The efforts of the ABA are important because frontline banking staff are the people who are face-to-face with cases and want to be able to prevent this happening.

The ABA is calling on federal and state Attorneys-General to commit to a timeline to deliver reforms that will ensure older Australians are protected from financial abuse. 

In a public statement, the ABA calls out the nation’s top law officers for failing to act on 2017 Australian Law Reform Commission recommendations to standardise laws across all states and territories and act against financial abuse, essentially allowing elder financial abuse to flourish.

ABA’s CEO, Anna Bligh, says “The complexity created by the lack of harmonisation of laws between jurisdictions remains a significant barrier to real progress.

“The effect of it is confusion for older people and their attorneys, unnecessary complexity for banks and other entities required to act on the laws governing enduring powers of attorney, and it creates a system that contributes to financial abuse.

“Our elderly Australians have worked hard over many years and deserve to live out their later years with dignity, respect and financial independence.”

Backing these comments, Professor McCallum has highlighted the need to persevere "We need resilience and persistence in this campaign. Nothing will be achieved if we don’t continue to pursue this development with a positive frame of mind. It has to be fixed. “

The ABA wants the Age Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Kay Patterson, to urge Attorneys-General to implement the 2017 Australian Law Reform Commission recommendations from the inquiry into elder abuse.

Those recommendations are:

• Agree to nationally consistent laws governing enduring powers of attorney (EPOA), including financial, medical, and personal.
• Establish a national register of power of attorney instruments.
• Designate a body to receive and investigate reports on suspected cases of abuse in each state and territory.

The ABA says while some states have systems in place, there is no uniform approach to reporting suspected financial abuse and the abuse is not investigated or acted upon.

Having accused governments of not acting against abuse, the ABA says it’s members (i.e. banks), have put in place initiatives to prevent elder abuse, including:

• The development of an industry guideline preventing and responding to financial abuse (including elder financial abuse).
• Training staff to recognise red flags on transactions.
• Providing digital tools and systems to help customers manage accounts, such as ‘two to sign’ arrangements, pre-set digital and card limits, and transaction notifications.

At a recent conference in Hobart, Age Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Kay Patterson, appeared to back Ms Bligh’s call, saying “The Australian Banking Association and I have worked closely together to put this issue on the agenda in recent years, particularly calling on the Attorneys-General across Australia to harmonise powers of attorney which will have the effect of reducing the likelihood of financial elder abuse.”

Source: Australian Banking Association