Financial abuse of people lacking mental capacity

What is it about?

The paper explores the scale and nature of the financial exploitation of people lacking mental capacity (e.g. older people with dementia, people with traumatic brain inury, learning difficulties or mental health problems). It identifies the range of statistics demonstrating the problem, both nationally and locally; reports on interviews with professionals responsible for dealing with safeguarding referrals to local councils, professional staff working in statutory and voluntary organisations supporting individuals at risk of such abuse, policy-makers, lawyers (including judges) acting on behalf of individuals vulnerable to financial exploitation of all kind; presents an analysis of a sample of cases heard in Court of Protection; and generally considers how the problem of abuse has gradually come to be recognised as a serious contemporary social problem and suggests improvements to the handling of the problem could be made.

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Why is it important?

Financial abuse is the third most common subject of referrals to councils' safeguarding teams; cases handled by the Court of Protection reveal how vulnerable to exploitation an increasing number of individuals can be when their financial affairs are being handled for them by relatives appointed as their attorneys; and professionals working with vulnerable people living on their own or in supported accommodation report how their clients can often be taken of advantage of by relatives and so-called 'friends'. This body of evidence demonstrates how serious the problem can be along with showing the need for policy changes to be made to tackle it.

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