(File image). Photo: 123RF
Tough economic times and financial pressure are partly behind a rise in financial elder abuse cases, according to aged care workers.
Age concern estimated one in ten older people were victims of elder abuse, but said the real number could be higher as many felt ashamed to share their stories.
Meanwhile, an elderly service provider in the Bay of Plenty has had to hire four new staff since 2021 to deal with the influx of elder abuse cases.
Kai Quan, intervention services manager at Age Concern Auckland, said elder abuse was something she saw every day in her line of work.
"It's pretty sad to see. Older people they have been working so hard, supporting their family, and sometimes they've also been abused by their family."
Quan shared one example of an older man living in social housing who allowed a young couple to stay with him, negotiating a price for rent which they stopped paying after a couple of weeks.
"He had to cook for them. He also bought them food and bought them other things as well. So basically he was financially and emotionally abused by this couple over the duration of four or five years."
This led the man to physical and mental exhaustion.
"One time he collapsed, because he was so weak, he was so tired and he just couldn't hold onto it, it was too much for him."
With increasing financial pressure on people from the cost of living, Quan said they were seeing more cases of family trying to get their hands on their older relatives money.
The amount of money older people were losing could be anything from a few dollars to much more, she said.
"They lost their house, sometimes we also see older people have been abused, the amount of money could be over $1 million, $2 million. Sometimes maybe the older person only lost a few hundred dollars however that's all the money they have."
Minister for Seniors Casey Costello. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Peata Biling ran the elder abuse response unit at Whaioranga Trust, across the Bay of Plenty.
In 2021 she was the only person at the trust working on elder abuse, now she's the manager of a team of four dedicated to helping abuse victims.
"We're finding it more and more common that this is happening. Where someone in the family is trying to find some way of getting that money from that elderly person. No matter how or what it's going to take, they will do it."
As well as financial desperation, alcohol and drugs were often aggravating factors in elder abuse, she said.
For many older people who were being abused, it was difficult to take action against their own kids, she said.
"They don't want to apply for a trespass order, a police safety order, a protection order. They don't want to do that because they're scared that they're going to put their daughter out on the street. And therefore she's going to become homeless."
Her team responded to about 30 to 40 cases of elder abuse per week.
Minister for Seniors, Casey Costello, said it was good that people were raising the issue of financial abuse, and older people should know there was somewhere they could go for help.
The government funded 37 Elder Abuse Response Services across the country, including the free helpline 0800 EA NOT OK.
The government was also working on reducing social isolation for seniors and supporting digital literacy, to help combat abuse, Costello said.
