15/06/2026
Elder Abuse Awareness Week (15-22 June 2026)
Elder Abuse Awareness Week is an important time to raise awareness, encourage conversations, and support the older people in our lives and in our community.
Elder abuse can take many forms including financial, emotional, physical, sexual or even neglect. It can often be difficult to recognise, and even harder to speak about.
As the cost of living gets more and more challenging, we are seeing signs of increases in financial abuse of older people.
It can be hard to pick up on the subtleties that are weaved into any type of abuse as it really does come in all shapes and sizes. With financial elder abuse, the abusers are often closely connected and have some kind of bond with their victim.
Things to watch out for are:
• Any adult using someone's home and assets without contributing to the costs.
• The creation of, or changes to, wills and enduring powers of attorney (EPAs) can sometimes be cause for concern.
• Strange transactions. Unpaid bills, lack of spending money and unusual looking withdrawals from accounts
• New names being added to bank accounts and other accounts or assets, like property ownership.
• Change in behaviour of the older person - becoming withdrawn from friends and family.
• Change in behaviour of a caregiver, family member or other trusted person.
• An adult child organises for their parent to move their parent’s legal work away from their own longstanding family solicitor to a new law firm.
Scam Relationships
Unfortunately, financial and psychological abuse are often intertwined and are weaponised by people wanting to exploit vulnerable people for financial gain.
o These situations can be disguised as genuine relationships, with perpetrators presenting themselves as friends, companions or often as a romantic relationship.
Things to watch out for here include:
• A person or people previously unknown to a victim suddenly becoming a part of their day-to-day life or an unlikely suitor claiming a legitimate romantic connection.
• Romance scams are often run via phone or internet, so any new relationship that is not face to face is another red flag.
Misuse of enduring powers of attorney (EPAs)
While EPAs are an important part of planning ahead and offer good protection, they are not a total safeguard against financial abuse. Would you be able to spot misuse of EPAs? Sadly, this kind of abuse is often carried out by close family and friends as the older person who has appointed them to be their attorney, trusting that they would act honourably.
This kind of abuse can take different forms:
• Embezzlement.
• A display of entitlement to someone's belongings.
• Denying someone's access to care services like a rest home
• Conversely, the situation of an attorney placing someone prematurely in care to suit their own agenda.
• Selling a home without the knowledge or permission of the rightful owner(s).
• A property attorney could try to direct a solicitor to deposit proceeds of the sale of an older person’s house into an account jointly owned by the older person and the property attorney.
Where to get help
You can seek advice from an independent organisation with experience like Age Concern about how to approach a situation you have queries about. Approaching a potential abuser directly can increase harm for an older person.
Age Concern Waikato: 150 Grantham Street, Hamilton Central, 3204
Phone: 07 838 2266
Email: [email protected]
• Call 111 if you think someone is in immediate danger and needs urgent help or 105 for non-emergency support
• Elder Abuse Response Service is a confidential, 24-hour free helpline. Phone 0800 EA NOT OK or 0800 32 668 65, or text 5032
• Age Concern - 0800 652 105 – please call for free and confidential advice
• Email [email protected]
