NEW ZEALAND: Financial abuse of elderly troubling

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (TVNZ), June 16, 2008: Age Concern says a rising number of older people are being pressured into handing over money to help out their extended families. The organisation, which works for the rights and wellbeing of older people, says it is increasingly worried about financial abuse of the elderly. Bev Burns from Age Concern Wellington says the economic downturn is probably part of the reason. She says older people can be easy to manipulate as they often feel guilty about seeing other family members, especially children, go without. Burns says many of them give others access to their ATM cards and then turn a blind eye when more money than expected is taken out. She says in some cases family members are just taking a few dollars or a bit of food from the pantry, but other cases are much worse. Source: Newstalk ZB