Trillions of pounds are expected to be passed down through families over the next 30 years in a \u201cgreat wealth transfer\u201d. However, as households are squeezed by rising prices, increasing numbers of older people are being pestered to hand over money by impatient \u201centitled\u201d relatives.<\/p>\n
But this pressure to give up their assets can amount to financial abuse, campaigners warn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a growing trend but an epidemic,\u201d said Richard Robinson of Hourglass, a charity that campaigns against the abuse of older people. <\/p>\n
This type of financial abuse is distinct from fraud or scams because it is not perpetrated by strangers, but a trusted person in the victim\u2019s life. More than half of perpetrators are an adult child of the victim, according to research by Hourglass, and 81 per cent are a family member. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a massively underplayed issue in all walks of society, something we\u2019ve been calling for urgent governmental action on for many years,\u201d Robinson said. The charity supports 75,000 victims a year, up from about 4,000 in 2018.<\/p>\n
Vicky Reynal, a money psychotherapist, said a common reason for \u201cinheritance impatience\u201d is a sense of entitlement to the victim\u2019s estate. \u201cThe economic climate we live in is creating a lot of tension,\u201d she said. \u201cHandouts from parents are seen as increasingly necessary, and inheritance seems too far down the line to make much of a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Housing and tax pressures<\/p>\n
Many families are seeking early access to inheritances to get on the property ladder. The average house price in the UK has more than tripled from \u00a384,000 in 2000 to \u00a3293,000 today, according to the Office for National Statistics. As a result, 57 per cent of renters believe that buying a home is impossible without family help, Barclays found.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2018My parents have little money\u2019 \u2014 how inheritance is dividing Britain<\/a><\/p>\n Rising tax pressures also drive demands for family handouts. The inheritance tax-free threshold will be frozen at \u00a3325,000 until at least 2030, and pension savings will be included in estates from April 2027. This will mean many more estates facing a 40 per cent tax bill.<\/p>\n And the seven-year rule, which exempts from inheritance tax gifts of money, provided the donor lives for seven years after making the gift, adds a sense of urgency.<\/p>\n Now family members are pushing to receive sums sooner. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that almost all of the \u00a317 billion gifted or lent by pensioners each year is given to their adult children. <\/p>\n While most of this money is given freely and lovingly, some pensioners may be coerced into giving it away earlier than planned, often through emotional manipulation. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely seeing people with more of a sense of entitlement or ownership of their future inheritance, as opposed to anything they might receive as a boon or a gift,\u201d said Stuart Downey from TWM Solicitors, based in the southeast. <\/p>\n Reynal described how she has seen clients struggle to refuse their children\u2019s demands for money. Some children even use threats such as cutting them off from their grandchildren or no longer visiting if the money is withheld. Many victims fear they will be sent into a care home against their will.<\/p>\n Downey said he has seen many clients\u2019 families place their elderly relative in a far cheaper care home than they could afford, to save their inheritance. This is known as \u201cinheritance preservation\u201d, where family members block pensioners from spending their money in the hope of taking it themselves. <\/p>\n Taking advantage<\/p>\n Callers to the Hourglass helpline have suffered financial losses of more than \u00a353 million in the past three years. But in reality this figure is probably much higher, because only 14 per cent of callers disclosed the amount they had given away.<\/p>\n Robinson said that many older people were reluctant to report how much they had lost. They didn\u2019t consider transferring money to family members as abuse and didn\u2019t recognise that they may have been manipulated.<\/p>\n