Industry bodies call for Govt action on elder abuse
COTA Australia, the Australian Banking Association and National Seniors penned a letter to the Attorney-General to take action on financial abuse.
The joint letter was distributed to every state and federal attorney-general, asking them to agree to standardised power of attorney laws across all states, a national online register for enduring powers of attorney and to establish a dedicated boy who can investigate suspected financial abuse of older Australians.
Chief executive of COTA Australia, Ian Yates, said the situation, as it stands, is “completely unacceptable”, and attorney-generals needed to be actively preventing financial abuse of older Australians.
“The difficulty with financial abuse is that it is often hard to detect as those involved are often close family and friends,” he said. “We are witnessing a growing incidence of cases where adult children develop ‘inheritance impatience’ and try and access inheritance money prematurely.”
Yates said while COTA Australia welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement earlier this year to progress a national plan for elder abuse and allocating $22 million in funding over five years to implement necessary measures, the Attorneys-general needed to do more.
“We need the nation’s Attorneys-General to take the lead in getting all States and Territories on board with a decisive plan and approach to preventing and addressing financial abuse amongst older Australians.”
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