GuardianCard Report Highlights The Problem of Financial Abuse
GuardianCard Report Highlights The Problem of Financial Abuse
Earlier this year GuardianCard published their In Safe Hands report.
GuardianCard is a financial service that provides a safe, simple and secure solution for providing appropriately authorised people with access to limited and ring-fenced funds to support the potentially vulnerable person without providing access to capital, savings or investments.
The report focuses on the all too common problem of financial abuse and the impact this has on the potentially vulnerable, particularly in the context of the ongoing impact of Covid 19.
Financial abuse can take many different forms; from being scammed or defrauded by those preying on those who are older or potentially vulnerable to family members putting pressure on them to make “gifts” of savings or their property.
The report, published in February 2021, found that, among other things:
- 1 in 4 people surveyed had been a victim of financial abuse.
- In the South-East, 26% of people had experienced financial abuse.
- More than half of those surveyed felt that they are at greater risk of theft, scams and fraud due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ian Macara, Court of Protection accredited Panel Deputy and Professional Attorney commented that “it is noteworthy that the report also found that 39% of people have had to rely on other people to look after their finances due to Covid-19, with family members and neighbours being the most frequently used”.
He continued “it highlights the importance of people taking professional and accredited advice about how to most appropriately and safely plan for later life or unexpected poor health. In this way people can carefully select who to trust to act in their best interests as Attorney in the future and what protections and safeguards to build into key legal authorities such as their Lasting Powers of Attorney.”
The report not only used replies from those surveyed, but also utilised posts from a variety of different platforms, such as Reddit, Twitter and other social platforms and forums.
From the 13,000 posts, almost 3,000 posts mentioned a sum of money that had either been successfully defrauded or attempted. Sums ranged from £20 and the highest figure was £10,000. While the most commonly cited figures were sums of £100 or less the combined sum of figures quoted was in excess of £26.7 million.
If you would value clear information and experienced advice on how to plan for later life by creating personalised and protective Lasting Powers of Attorney then please do contact Ian and his specialist team on 01903 229999 or via info@bennett-griffin.co.uk
If you are concerned for the safety of a loved one potentially at risk of financial abuse then please do speak up. There are number of organisations that we can signpost you to including the Police, Social Services, the Office of The Public Guardian, and Hourglass charity.
We are experienced in seeking protection and redress with a variety of legal remedies where the abuse has involved misappropriation of assets, wills that are either made under duress or forged and other fraudulent activities.