Arguments on whether LPA powers are being misused by family members and advisors continue, with a law firm arguing that the UK government should investigate the whole issue.

Momentum is building behind calls for lawmakers to tighten protections of the elderly against crooked advisors and unscrupulous relatives and to explore whether the existing lasting power of attorney system should be reformed.

A private client partner at Wedlake Bell, a UK law firm, argues that an increasing number of elderly clients it has advised have been defrauded by family members and carers when lasting power of attorney (LPA) powers were involved. Ann Stanyer, a private client partner at the firm, wants the UK government to set up a parliamentary report into the regime, a course similar to that currently undertaken in Australia. 

“Financial abuse of the elderly is a crime that goes on behind closed doors and is compounded by the fact that it involves victims who are often frail, vulnerable and feel isolated. On top of this they entrust those family members and other carers to look after their financial affairs and are therefore in many cases oblivious to a crime being perpetrated,” Stanyer said.  

As populations in developed countries age and diseases such as Alzheimer’s take their toll, the issue of how older people’s financial affairs are protected becomes ever more urgent. It is, arguably, more serious than, say, what so-called Millennials want to do with their money and lives, if only because wealth remains concentrated among the older population.

A recent study by the UK’s Ministry of Justice shows that the number of people formally assigning emergency decision-making those with LPA has surged by more than 180 per cent in the past five years and by more than a quarter in the last year alone. Last year a retired senior judge, Denzil Lush, caused controversy saying LPA system was being abused, although the private client legal profession has argued the overall system does provide useful protections. There have been a number of commentaries about the present system, such as here.

Wedlake Bell’s Stanyer has examined the information that is publicly available and which points to financial abuse by making a Freedom of Information Act request to the Care Quality Commission and by examining the most recent annual report and accounts from the Office of the Public Guardian.  She made a FOIA request to the CQC where care homes have a duty to report concerns about residents, such as non-payment of care home fees. The figures she received back show, Wedlake Bell said, that between January 2013 to June 2017, 12,968 safeguarding records – official reports where the CQC is alerted to and has investigated allegations of financial abuse – were made to the Commission.  

The breakdown of data shows year on year that the highest number of victims fell within the three age bands of 65-74, 75-84 and 85+. In 2016, the figures show that there were 329, 530 and 848 safeguarding records made for each of the corresponding age bands. “This illustrates how financially vulnerable the UK’s elderly population is and supports Ann’s case for a call to action,” she said.

A report from the Office of the Public Guardian, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice that is designed to guard the interests of those who may lack the mental capacity to make significant decisions for themselves, shows that, in its 2016/17 Annual Report & Accounts, 5,327 safeguarding referrals were received in that time, a fall of 15 per cent from the previous year.

In Australia, lawmakers are examining the system and due to report by September this year; there as an official probe into the system in Northern Ireland, with a report issued in 2016, while in the US, Congress passed the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act in October 2017. The US legislation was passed in response to an estimated one in five over-65-year-olds being victims. The bill introduces training for investigators, collection of data, enhanced victim assistance and robust prevention programmes.