What is financial abuse?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200300012 |
| Date | 01 May 2003 |
| Pages | 3-10 |
| Published date | 01 May 2003 |
| Author | Hilary Brown |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
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Policyoverview
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 5 Issue 2 • May 2003 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited 3
key words
abstract
The literature on financial abuse, in common with the legal
framework, tends to focus on financial abuse in the context of
a one-off transaction rather than an ongoing and
interdependent relationship. Wilber and Reynolds (1996)
identified four criteria to distinguish between
‘misappropriation’ and ‘acceptable financial exchange’:
■the characteristics of the victim, especially whether the
vulnerable person has capacity to understand and agree to
the transaction (see also Blunt, 1996)
■the nature of the relationship between the victim and the
perpetrator, including any power imbalance and
dependency
■the costs and benefits of any transaction to the victim:
exploitation being when the interests of the perpetrator
prevail at the expense of the victim (Wilber and Reynolds,
1996)
■the nature of influence used to obtain a victim’s
participation in transactions. Wilber and Reynolds (1996)
conceptualise this as a continuum, with benign influence at
one end and theft at the other – coercion and fraud lie
somewhere along the middle of the continuum, although
the threshold varies according to how dependent the
vulnerable adult is upon the person influencing them.
There is also a literature that focuses on the dynamics of
neglect and which explores the nature of the responsibility to
meet the needs of a vulnerable adult. This responsibility may
or may not lie with the same person who holds the mandate
for managing the individual’s finances; for example, a
professional receiver, such as a solicitor, may be responsible
for managing an estate for an individual who is being cared for
by a nursing home or residential care service. In the absence of
relative responsibility laws, neglect by another or others is
difficult to assess. Self-neglect represents a yet more elusive
concept, as exemplified by elderly people who seem
competent to handle their affairs but appear unwilling to do
so, or individuals who desperately want to provide for
What is financial abuse? Professor Hilary Brown
Consultant in Social Care and Adult Protection,
Centre for Applied Social and Psychological
Development, Salomons, Canterbury Christ
Church University College
financial abuse
neglect
lack of capacity
definition of
In this paper the meaning and
use of the term ‘financial abuse’ is
explored and new ways of looking
at the phenomenon suggested. In
particular the paper looks at the
interaction between financial abuse
and neglect in the context of adults
who lack capacity.
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