Monetary gifts or financial elder abuse?
With World Elder Abuse Awareness Day held recently (June 15), and our GP trial campaign kicking off with the Australian Medical Association Queensland recently also, I and my team at the Society have been creating dialogue around elder abuse.
You can read more about the GP trial in my last blog.
Many of us are familiar with domestic and family violence and what constitutes the abuse. Unfortunately, elder abuse is under reported and an issue which many Australians do not fully understand.
It has been recognised in the Not Now, Not Ever Report as a form of domestic violence, and can be in the form of physical, emotional, sexual, financial abuse or neglect.
Sometimes, the smallest actions by family members — who are oftentimes the perpetrators of abuse — can be elder abuse. This can include financial elder abuse, whereby the adult child skims off the pension to pay for petrol to drive mum or dad around, or receives monetary gifts from a parent suffering dementia.
An example of the latter occurred in a case that went through the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in 2013. An 84-year-old man lived in a single bedroom Department of Housing Unit. He received assistance from various government departments and his only source of income was the aged pension. He had two adult children — a son and a daughter both living independently and estranged from each other.
This man had a close relationship with his adult son and had a history of gifting money to him, even after the father was diagnosed with dementia and other illnesses. The adult son continued to receive the money, even though the gifts left the father in financial difficulty. This caused concerns when the daughter was required to assist him financially. A social worker and the daughter raised concerns about the elderly man’s ability to manage his limited financial resources and so an application was made to QCAT for an order that the Public Trustee manage his affairs.
The son did not appear at the hearing or give evidence as to his views of his father’s generosity to him. However, his position was that his father had always gifted him money and so the ongoing gifts were in keeping with that. The finding from QCAT was that having regard to his deteriorating mental condition and “because of his lifetime of habit, GC is unable to resist or weigh the outcomes of providing financial assistance to his son or others as opposed to his own interests” at [56].
And so the Tribunal found that “financial abuse is occurring and that GC is vulnerable due to his lack of insight into the consequences of his financial decision as a direct outcome of his diagnosis of dementia” at [58]. They appointed the Public Trustee to manage his affairs. The Tribunal particularly pointed to an incident where the father drove to the airport to collect his adult son only to become lost at the airport for five hours driving in and out of the airport at least 12 times. GC was hospitalised after the incident. The Tribunal found the adult son’s “conduct towards his father indicates a lack of insight into the difficulties his father now has and what it means” [71]. And so they appointed the Public Trustee to manage the father’s affairs. The tribunal favoured this approach over appointing his adult daughter because of the inability of the adult children to work together.
In this case, we can see just how subtle financial elder abuse can seem to the perpetrator. The adult son did not feel he was doing anything wrong — although many of us would have realised otherwise — and continued to carry on as he had in the past by receiving the monetary gifts.
Unfortunately, the reality of elder abuse is that it occurs mostly within the family and oftentimes family members do not have sufficient objectivity to see that it is happening.
Such cases demonstrate the necessity for all of us to plan for our declining years and ensure that we have a strategy in place. We must future plan to ensure our wellbeing as we decline, regardless of how small our financial resources may be. This may be through the appointment of an Enduring Power of Attorney. You can contact your solicitor for further advice on this.
If you think that someone you know may be a subject of elder abuse, please encourage them to speak to their GP or the Queensland Police Service if they are in immediate danger. You can visit our website qls.com.au for more resources and links to information.
If you think you may be the subject of elder abuse, please call the Queensland Police Service if you are in physical danger, or contact the Elder Abuse Prevention Unit Helpline on 1300 651 192 (Queensland). If you require the assistance of a solicitor, please contact Queensland Law Society on 1300 367 757 to make use of our Find a Solicitor service. This service is also available at qls.com.au.
