What do the stats say about financial abuse among people with disability?

The rate of financial abuse among vulnerable Aussies is outrageous.

A combined study between the University of New South Wales and commonwealth bank found that 1 in 2 people with disability and elderly people will be the victim of financial abuse at some point in their life — making them 35% more likely than the general population.

This shows us that the way we’ve been taught to handle money relating to vulnerable Aussies is perfectly suitable — for a world that no longer exists

Multiple Royal commission hearings reviewed the impacts of traditional money handling processes and the consequences to people with disability only last year. Even in a highly regulated industry, vulnerability remains at alarming levels.

So where do the problems stem from?

In some circumstances participants rely on 3rd parties (providers or carers) to make payments on their behalf, whether that be due to financial capacity reasons, or accessibility reasons. One of two things happen in this scenario:

1 — participants hand over their personal bank card

In this scenario, banking terms of service is breached. This is because when you knowingly hand over your personal card to someone else to spend, you give up your zero liability protection. This means if your money is misused, even without your consent it is a) extremely difficult to prove given your personal card is used and b) even more difficult to recover the funds

2 — the bank doesn’t give participants an account

Banks can sometimes identify participant as a risky customer, due to the nature of relying on other to pay for you. As their infrastructure doesn’t cater for multi-person spending, they may not allow them to set up a bank account because of fraud or breaching of terms of service risks. This lead to participants having to deal primarily in cash.

Cash adds extra risks again — it’s basically the wild west. Too many times do we see this common scenario:

Cash is put in an envelope or ziploc bag when heading out into the community. Support worker pays and puts change and receipts in bag to give back to family. Family counts and cross references. Cash gets lost, change doesn’t add up and there is no way to really do anything about it

More than that — it also doesn’t support participants to be involved in their spending in a way that prepares them to live independently in what is only becoming a more digitally-centric world.

So knowing the critically important challenge on our hands, how can we ensure participants have a way to interact with money digitally in a way that:

• gives them security and transparency when carers spend their money on their behalf

• empowers them to build their skills with specific features and safeguards so they can become more independent

We need technology that is purpose-built and caters to the needs of each individual and their circumstances.