How the banking system can better protect older people from financial abuse

28 Apr 2025

Justice Connect welcomes the Federal Government’s recommendations to better detect and respond to financial abuse of older Australians. 

In April 2024, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services commenced an inquiry into the financial services regulatory framework surrounding financial abuse (the Inquiry). In December 2024, the Inquiry released its Report titled ‘Financial Abuse: An insidious form of domestic violence’ (the Report). The Report examined the insidious effect of financial abuse in Australia and specifically highlighted its impact on older people.

In the context of the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study finding that 85,000 older Australians had experienced financial abuse in 2021, the Inquiry’s 61 recommendations are a timely call for comprehensive reform.

Our Seniors Law program operates health justice partnerships with our health and community partners to provide free legal assistance to older people experiencing or at risk of financial elder abuse. We assist older people with their legal problems in healthcare environments they know and trust. Informed by this work, in June 2024 Justice Connect made a submission to the Inquiry, calling for industry-wide protocols for detecting and responding to financial abuse against older people.

Read our full submission:

Statistically (and in our experience) adult children are the most common perpetrators of financial elder abuse, and it is not uncommon for the perpetrator of the abuse to be the older person’s Attorney. With the rising cost of living, the generational wealth gap is widening. In this context, ‘inheritance impatience’ is becoming more common among adult children of ageing parents. Rather than waiting to inherit their parent’s assets when they pass away, adult children may interfere with their parent’s finances to benefit them now or protect their future inheritance.

We welcome the Report’s far-reaching recommendations to improve the design, implementation of and reporting on safeguards against financial abuse of older Australians. Many of the recommendations directly reflect our submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee.

The three key recommendations that we strongly support being implemented are:

Recommendation 7: Amending the Privacy Act

The Report recommended that the Australian Government consider amending the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to spell out that elder financial abuse constitutes a serious threat to the life, health, and safety of an individual, meaning that there is an exemption for financial institutions to report instances of financial abuse to the authorities or safeguarding body. We called for such amendments in our submission to the Inquiry as we believe this is key to bringing perpetrators of elder financial abuse to account. Justice Connect recommends that the further work be undertaken with people who have lived experience and their support services in order to research, design and develop changes to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) which address this issue.

Recommendation 14: Harmonising power of attorney legislation

The Report recommended that the state and federal governments implement measures to achieve greater consistency in enduring power of attorney (EPOA) laws across the country. In our submission to the Inquiry we called for the establishment of an EPOA register. Justice Connect has previously argued for the introduction for a national online register for all assisted decision-making instruments to reduce the prevalence of financial elder abuse. In our view, registration would prevent third parties and organisations relying on a POA that had been revoked, or a former attorney seeking to act on a revoked POA.

The Inquiry found that an EPOA register should only be considered after legislative reform. We maintain that both legislative reform and an EPOA register could be developed concurrently, giving financial institutions an extra tool to detect financial abuse.

The Report also recommended improved education programs on the potential misuse of EPOAs. We strongly support this call for education and awareness programs on the potential misuse of EPOAs. Recognsing the need for education, we currently run Conversation Guide workshops where we guide groups of older people through the benefits and pitfalls of EPOAs and how to prevent misuse. This program has now reached more than 1500 older people with the great majority of participants agreeing they now understand the value of future planning and how to go about it. We continue to see a strong need for this type of education program and support similar programs being rolled out more widely.

Recommendation 22: Increase in financial literacy education

The Report recommended that financial institutions increase financial literacy education to support and assist older Australians to use online banking. Given the number of clients we have seen in our health justice partnerships that could have greatly benefited from some support in learning how to use online banking, we strongly support education programs being rolled out in an appropriate and engaging way.

Based on our frontline casework experience, there will always be a proportion of older people who are unable to access online banking. Given the unintended, genuine risks of financial abuse that the shift to online banking is exposing some older customers to, in our experience, regular paper statements are still a key safeguard against financial elder abuse. For this cohort, provision of regular paper statements is essential so that they can monitor their own finances without depending on others.

Justice Connect also recommends that banks should develop and enhance earlier, preventative measures against financial elder abuse including:

• Regular, compulsory training and updated resources on financial elder abuse for bank employees
• More consistent, industry-wide adherence to strict checks and requirements for financial products that could put an older person’s principal place of residence at risk (such as reverse mortgages & guarantor loans).
• Further research into best-practice safeguarding options.

We are pleased that the Inquiry’s recommendations broadly accept and advance our submissions however more needs to be done. Justice Connect will continue to monitor developments in the financial services sectors around the financial abuse of older people and advocate for the needs of older people who are experiencing or at risk of financial abuse.