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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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From "intrusive" and "excessive" to financially abusive?
— charitable and religious fund-raising amongst vulnerable older people | | Author(s) | Mark Redmond |
| Journal title | Journal of Adult Protection, vol 18, no 2, 2016 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2016 |
| Pages | pp 86-95 |
| Source | www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/jap.htm |
| Keywords | Financial services [older people] ; Elder abuse ; Fund raising ; Charities ; Christianity ; Protestant Church. |
| Annotation | The purpose of this paper was to explore the nature of both charitable and religious fundraising amongst vulnerable older adults, particularly in the wake of the suicide of 92-year-old Olive Clarke in the Spring of 2015. The author argues that fundraising amongst vulnerable older adults is largely unregulated and independently monitored, hence ensuring the protection of this group requires substantial change and new accountabilities. The paper explores current approaches to financial abuse and the focus on family and professional carers as the main likely perpetrators. However using literature from both the USA and Australia, it considers notions of 'trust' and professional behaviour, and the way that vulnerable older adults are subject to new forms of abuse as a result of financial technology such as online and telephone banking. It links this with the practices of charitable fundraisers using techniques such as cold calling and direct mail. The circumstances surrounding the death of Olive Clarke suggest that charities and those who fundraise for them appear to engage in a practice whereby they sell the names of likely donors to each other. This practice opens opportunities for abusive relationships to take place. At the same time many clergy operate like the single GP surgeries that allowed Harold Shipman to practise unnoticed and unaccountable. The relationship between clergy and their ageing congregations, who are relied upon to raise funds for church activities, open up the opportunity for abuse to take to place. Few records on charitable giving exist that permit regulation and independent scrutiny. Following the death of Olive Clarke the Fundraising Standards Board has been tasked with reviewing the way charities raise funds amongst vulnerable older adults. No one has yet used the language of financial abuse, choosing to opt rather for the terms 'excessive' and 'intrusive'. There is a need to shift this debate and encourage greater regulation and accountability. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-160415220 A |
| Classmark | J: QNT: QF: PL: TS: TSD |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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