Policy, Practice and the Law: Improving Protections Against Economic Abuse

Calls to UK’s only abuse helpline for older people rise TWO THIRDS IN ONE YEAR as fraud, theft, abuse and neglect reaches epidemic levels.

Older people are being targeted more than ever before in new statistics and data revealed by Hourglass at the start of Safer Ageing Week (11/11/24).

The charity, the only one of its kind in the UK, reports that calls to its helpline are up 65% year-on-year and this has led to over 75,000 calls, contacts and impacts involving older people, their families and professionals. This is an all-time record for the thirty-year-old charity.

As part of a new campaign, entitled Take Note, the charity is urging the general public and influencers to finally grasp the nettle about the abuse of older people and treat it in the same manner as other forms of abuse. This comes off the back of recent staggering data that revealed over £53m has been reported as losses relating to economic abuse in the past three years – an average of £87k per case (5,127 cases). These figures, which come from Hourglass cases alone, are likely to be a significant underestimate.

Hourglass, who uniquely support older victim-survivors of abuse and neglect, employ just thirty members of staff to deal with cases, calls and research. However, the charity has seen figures jump from around 10,000 in 2020/21 to the new high of 75,000 in 2023/24.

Commenting on the figures, Richard Robinson CEO of Hourglass, said:

“There is no question we are facing an epidemic of abuse of older people in the UK but it remains firmly under the radar. We estimate that abuse of older people costs the UK economy £16 billion per year, excluding economic abuse, and this equates to a figure of £50k per victim-survivor per year.

“Safer Ageing Week 2024 is a rare opportunity to shine a light on these issues and sound the alarm bell. We are sleepwalking into a scenario where we are expecting more than nine million extra older people in the UK by 2050, equivalent to another city with the population of London, but with little pre-planning around safer ageing, abuse services and specialist safeguarding. We are already at epidemic levels – without urgent work, we are looking at a tidal wave of issues.”