The National Assistance Board (NAB) is concerned about the number of elderly people being abused financially.
Acting director Colleen Walcott revealed yesterday that the majority of the abuse cases reported to the NAB related to the handling and control of pension cheques.
“Elder abuse is occurring in households. The most that we see in terms of reported cases to the NAB is usually financial abuse where there is an issue surrounding their finances, particularly their pension . . . . Who has the pension, who is managing the pension and how it is being used to meet the needs of the recipient.
“Last month, we had about ten reported cases and out of those, six were for financial abuse. There are some months that we see an increase particularly, and now where there is scarcity, a lack of resources, unemployment, the pension cheque is one of the surest forms of income,” Walcott said.
