13,000 in care homes are victims of scams
CARE home managers have reported nearly 13,000 incidents of elderly residents being targeted for their money in the past four years.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that 12,968 financial abuse concerns were raised with the Care Quality Commission between 2013 and June last year, prompting calls for a Government inquiry.
Financial abuse involves a vulnerable person being persuaded to hand over their money or assets or someone using a victim’s credit cards or cheques without permission.
Abuse
The majority of investigations involved victims over the age of 65, with 85 and over the most common age group.
In 2016, 503 cases involved care home staff when the abuser was identified in the investigation.
Out of the 2,826 complaints that year, 1,310 did not describe the suspect.
Common abusers also included family members with a lasting power of attorney agreement who take advantage of it to secure money or valuable possessions.
In 2016, 458 were named as relatives of the victim.
Stephen McCarthy, director of Action Against Elder Abuse England, said: “As the current furore around safeguarding at Oxfam shows us, society does not consider it acceptable for criminal actions to result in merely the loss of a job.
“There has to be the genuine deterrence that only criminal prosecutions can provide.”
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Any case of financial exploitation in a care home is one too many and the extreme vulnerability of many residents means it is essential for providers to have the best safeguarding measures in place and implemented consistently.
“The vast majority of care home staff want only the best for residents and work hard to provide it. But as in any walk of life there are bound to be a few who don’t and everything possible must be done to keep older people safe from them. At Age UK we worry that many cases of abuse go unreported so we would encourage anyone who suspects that this is happening to an older person to contact their social services department or the police without delay.”
Ann Stanyer, of Wedlake Bell, the legal firm which made the Freedom of Information request, said it should be “high up on the Government’s agenda” to create new policies in this area.
Fraud
A Government spokeswoman said: “We have introduced tougher inspections of care services and made sure that the police, councils and the NHS are working together to help protect vulnerable adults.
“We are determined to tackle fraud and that is why the Government created the Joint Fraud Taskforce, which brings together government, banks and law enforcement to develop a collective response to it.
“Working collaboratively in this way builds on the good work already being done to tackle complex fraud issues.”