This project is funded by the Nationwide Foundation.

Daily Money Management - Supporting older people to manage their financial affairs: a practical approach to protect older people from financial exploitation

Project Summary

The Centre for Policy on Ageing has been funded by the Nationwide Foundation Investor Programme to establish a small number of pilot 'Daily Money Management' programmes in the UK.

The focus of our work will be to investigate in detail the daily money management (DMM) programmes that operate in the US, examine the feasibility of establishing a similar programme in the UK and establish up to three pilot project to identify pitfalls and lessons to be learnt. The work will also raise awareness of financial abuse, encourage practitioners to share experiences and learning to promote and sustain good practice and develop a practical way of helping older people improve their financial capability and avoid financial abuse. In view of the level of interest in financial and material abuse this innovative project offers a unique opportunity to influence policy makers in a way that will benefit older people, and their lives, and make a positive contribution to both local and national policy and service provision.

The overall objectives of the project will be

• To develop a practical, sustainable, way of helping older people avoid financial abuse to promote change for the better and improve their quality of life by removing the fear of financial exploitation.
• To establish a small number (1 - 3) of working sustainable daily money management schemes (pilot projects) in the UK.
• To increase awareness and understanding of financial abuse.
• To share good practice, experiences and learning in order to detect and prevent financial abuse.

The first (finding out) stage of the project is now complete and CPA has produced an Interim Scoping Report of its findings. The second (pilot) stage of the project is about to begin.

Money Management Seminar.

Co-hosted by the Centre for Policy on Ageing (CPA) and the Social Care Workforce Research Unit (SCWRU), King's College London,on 16 November 2010, this seminar explored issues around the financial abuse of older people and how older people manage their day-to-day financial affairs.

Behind Closed Doors: Older Couples and the Management of Household Money: Dr Debora Price, Institute of Gerontology, King’s College London, presented some of the findings from a two-year ESRC project which has examined in depth the money management practices of older couples. This presentation focused on how gender roles influence the organisation of money within the household, and drew out some of the implications of this research for social care policy and practice.

Daily Money Management: Supporting Older People to Manage their Financial Affairs: Gilly Crosby, Director, Centre for Policy on Ageing, provided an overview of Daily Money Management (DMM) services within the context of preventing financial abuse of older people. Preventive interventions are especially significant as policies are implemented to personalise social and some health care through individual budgets. Well established in the US, DMM services are designed to encourage and foster the preservation of individual autonomy of older adults to the extent possible and delay or put off altogether more restrictive interventions.

Money Management and the Mental Capacity Act: Kritika Samsi, SCWRU, King's College London, explained how the Mental Capacity Act 2005 encourages people approaching retirement to consider financial, health and social care decisions in the event of the loss of mental or physical capacity. Kritika reviewed the findings of the EVIDEM study which explored older people’s perceptions and wishes for later life, including drivers for long-term and short-term financial choices, the effect of the economic climate, understanding tax and pensions, and the rare consideration of health and social care.

Call for information

In order to build up a body of knowledge that will help others, throughout this project CPA is gathering information about other projects, operating in the United Kingdom, that help older people with their day-to-day financial affairs.

If you are involved with, or know of, a scheme, please fill in the questionnaire and email it to moneymanagement@cpa.org.uk