Elderly financial abuse is widespread. The average loss incurred by the victims of elderly financial abuse is over £70,000. The exploitations can take many forms, from forgery of signatures to credit card scams and fake promises of unusual returns on investments.
If you’re planning to start your hunt for the paid companion care near me in the UK, make sure you have a clear idea of how you can save your loved ones from financial abuse or exploitation.
5 Tips to Protect Seniors from Financial Abuse
Here are five tips to protect seniors from financial abuse…
Automate As Much as Possible
Paying bills is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tasks for your elderly loved one. But this doesn’t have to be that tough, right?
The solution?
You can easily automate your senior’s bill payments by connecting them with their checking accounts. There are two benefits of this – First, this will help your loved ones stay organized. Second, it may prevent the elderly from getting trapped in transferring funds to a fraudster.
In the same way, you can set up and link your senior’s checking account with the sources from where they receive money regularly. These may include social security funds, pensions, and rental revenue.
When these incomes are deposited electronically at a specified time period, your seniors will no longer be affected by money loss or fraud.
Use Credit Card Instead of Cash
Because cash transactions are usually risky and challenging to track, it is better to use credit cards in lieu of cash.
There are several benefits of using credit cards in place of cash – tracking or maintaining transaction history, protection against identity theft, and the opportunity to claim the credit card company in case of any duplicitous charges are to name a few.
3. Educate Seniors on Local Scams
The best thing you can do to protect your seniors against financial abuse is to educate them on local scams. Of course, you don’t have to sound like an educator to do that. Just ask ‘have you heard about the recent scam? And take it from there…
Remind them never to share their personal financial information with anyone or reply to any junk email that asks them to share their social security number, home address, etc.
Allow Trusted Individuals to Review Senior’s Financial Activity
It is also essential to review your senior’s financial activity from time to time to ensure any agent or company is not manipulating them.
Encourage Seniors to Draft a Financial Power of Attorney
Last but not least, encourage seniors to draft a financial POA in a manner that reduces the risk of financial abuse and fraud. Try to involve a professional power of attorney agent and keep them in a loop in case of any financial transaction to ensure your senior’s every transaction is tracked and recorded.
You can’t stop fraudsters and abusers from manipulating seniors and the elderly. But what you can do is save and protect your loved ones by educating them and using the right tactics. We hope this post has provided answers to all questions you had in mind. All the best!
