Stuff.co.nz, 17 March 2013 [original article in Sunday Star-Times 17/3/13]

Befriended by a tradesman, an elderly woman drew around $70,000 in cash over a period of weeks from her bank to give to the man who called her "Nana". He'd been doing some painting work for her, but nobody realised what was going on in a case of what has come to be known as financial "elder abuse", the exploitation of older, vulnerable people, often by those they have come to trust.

It is a national shame that some claim is becoming an epidemic problem.

The old woman's story had a happy-ish ending when Age Concern, which helps elderly people in around 1000 cases of similar abuse each year, was alerted. The police were involved and the woman's bank, BNZ, decided to make a voluntary payment to her of $45,000. The payment didn't mean the bank was admitting it had should not have let an old woman withdraw large slugs of cash and take the money out in her handbag, but it was tacit acknowledgement that it should have done more to protect her.

The Sunday Star-Times encountered the case at an information evening for the elderly run by a funeral home in the beachfront town of Orewa, north of Auckland, a popular place to retire.

There's wealth in the Orewa community with its new houses and sweeping beach, but where there is money, there is temptation. With our ageing population - the number of people aged 65 or over is projected to rise to 1.33 million in 2051 from half a million in 2005 - intergenerational envy and exploitation will only become a bigger issue.

Age Concern's Louise Collins co-ordinates the society's national effort to combat elder abuse, and she reckons New Zealand has an ingrained lack of respect for the elderly. Her simple message is that though there are free-floating individuals after old people's money as in the BNZ case, the abusers are mainly family members, those who owe the elderly most - their children.

"If we look at the financial abuse, it is often about people wanting their inheritance early. ‘I have got more need for it,' is the ageist attitude," Collins said. " ‘They don't need new clothes, or nice food, or to go out to the pictures. They don't need the money. They are going to die.' "

Gauging the extent of the problem, though, is difficult as there is no official data.

Collins said that even if a question had been included in the census, it is probable that the scale of the issue would have been under-reported. "They just think it is their lot in life and they are stoic about it," Collins said.  Collins uses a 2007 study from the UK to guesstimate the scale of elder abuse here. That study was not just focused on financial abuse, but also violence, sexual abuse and neglect.

It estimated three in every 100 elderly people were victims, so if the scale in New Zealand were similar, Collins said: "That'd be two people every hour in New Zealand."

The cases Age Concern circulates among its branches for training purposes explain why Collins has such a jaundiced view of our collective attitude to the elderly.

Take the 58-year-old man determined to preserve his inheritance. He had effectively trapped his elderly mother, aged 82 and the victim of a stroke which left her with difficulty communicating and mobility issues, in her own home where he continued to live. She needed residential care, something that would have resulted in large rest-home fees eating into the capital, of which the son was the sole beneficiary, and which would have required him to pay for his own accommodation. With Age Concern as a support, the woman is now in residential care, and her son, though "grumpy", has accepted his mother's need for care.

Bad as the case was, there are worse.

"The sad ones are the ones where they sell up the family home so one of the children can buy a nicer house. They suggest mum or dad moves in with them," said Collins. They feel pressured into doing it, and find themselves effectively having lost their home, feeling out of place in the new one, perhaps later made to feel like an encumbrance, and ultimately see their wealth disappear.

In another case the Sunday Star-Times learned of at the Orewa meeting, an elderly mother was coerced into lending her son practically all her money. His bankruptcy has left her unable to pay high rest home care bills, and under Work and Income rules, subsidies are not supposed to be available to those who have given away their wealth.

Abuse of enduring power of attorney is also common, as are cases where Age Concern is called in when rest home fees are not paid. This latter scenario often involves family members having emptied bank accounts after an old person has moved into care.

It is not always greed, aspiration and desperation that lies behind abuse. Addiction can also be a catalyst.

Age Concern cites one example where an elderly woman loaned her daughter a credit card to buy a fridge. As well as making the purchase, the daughter ran up a gambling debt of $6500. The daughter promised to pay it back, but later borrowed her mother's eftpos card and used it to gamble.

The woman asked the daughter to post some cheques for bills such as power, but the daughter, knowing they would bounce, destroyed them. When warning notices started arriving from the power and phone companies, the elderly woman turned to Age Concern.

Unlike the previous case, this one ended up with the police. In other cases Age Concern helps elderly people get protection orders to end abuse by relatives.

Most cases do not end up with the police, Collins says. That's important, because fear for their abusers appears to be a barrier to elderly people seeking help.

That's illustrated by the case of a 77-year-old man, who was exploited by his grandson. The man allowed the 38-year-old to move into a downstairs unit at his home. The grandson then invited someone else to move in, and the elderly man ended up paying much higher electricity bills, something he could not afford to do on NZ Super.

When he asked the grandson and the other person to leave, both of them yelled at him, telling him he was a "selfish old bastard" and threatening to break the windows.

With Age Concern's intervention, the abuse was ended. The grandson apologised and paid his share of the bills, and the unwanted guest moved out.

Concern for the health and wellbeing of their abuser appears to be one of a number of factors that explains the low level of abuse reported, but financial abuse is often associated with physical and psychological abuse and even psychological trauma. Just as with victims of family violence, those suffering financial abuse at the hands of trusted individuals often display low self-confidence and self-esteem. Many are isolated and have been left bereaved and feel embarrassment and shame. They can also be physically frail, fearful they could enrage their abuser and still be concerned about what speaking up will mean for the perpetrator.

Making progress nationally probably means building awareness, which is difficult when the media is dominated by thirty and forty-somethings blind to the issue.

Collins believes it will also require a conscious effort by society to develop strategies that will detect signs of elder abuse, something society as a whole is pretty weak at.

As the BNZ has shown, banks have a part in that. So do neighbours. So do GPs, because not filling prescriptions and depression are telltale signs of financial abuse. But by far the best watchdogs are family members and friends of the abused.

Collins says that from the perspective of pure self-interest, younger people in New Zealand have a deep and personal stake in ending the ageism in which she believes elder abuse thrives.

"We need to all recognise that we are going to get old one day. If nothing changes, the outcome for many of us is pretty grim."

- © Fairfax NZ News