As part of the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians (Council of Attorneys‑General, 2019), the Attorney-General’s Department commissioned the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study (NEAPS) to investigate elder abuse. This snapshot provides the key findings of the Survey of Older People (2020), a nationally representative survey of 7,000 people aged 65 and over living in the community (i.e. they did not live in residential aged care settings). The full report on the NEAPS is available here >

How common is financial abuse?

The Survey of Older People indicated that 2% of community-dwelling people aged 65 and older in Australia reported experiencing financial abuse in the 12 months preceding the survey. Of those who reported experiencing financial abuse, being pressured into giving or loaning money, possessions or property was the most common form of financial abuse (42%) (Figure 1). Although most older people who experienced financial abuse reported experiencing one type of financial abuse (68%), nearly one-third reported experiencing multiple types.