Telford and Wrekin Safeguarding Partnership

There is now a much clearer idea of the scale and impact of organised crime and individual criminals in terms of committing fraud and scams, however, anecdotal evidence has for some time suggested that a significant amount of financial abuse is inflicted by those much closer to home, namely family members.

This new report aims to address the lack of awareness and research about this increasing issue and calls upon all parties with a vested interest in consumer personal finance to take action, so that the issue of fraud and theft within families can be better understood in terms of scale, type and impact. This will additionally help all frontline professions in providing more effective advice, support and measures to prevent this type of crime.

The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce is a newly created independent representative body covering the personal finance and wider professional services sectors whose ultimate purpose is to promote greater understanding, encourage appropriate behaviours and establish good practice in respect of consumer vulnerability.

The current regulatory focus on vulnerability provides a timely opportunity as a ‘united’ profession to change public perception through the way in which we consciously deal with those in vulnerable circumstances and address perceptions or the unconscious reality of commercial conflicts of interest.

To do so, we need to find a way to collaborate across the sector and beyond, to find some basis of consistency in service delivery and understanding, and this report in partnership with the APPG on Insurance and Financial Services one of our first steps. The report aims to achieve the following actions and this is where I would like to ask for your support:

• increase joint working within organisations on prevention and resolution of concerns
• spread awareness amongst safeguarding partners and others about the issue and prompt greater collaboration
• support discussions between agencies to agree and understand their differing terms, roles and responsibilities
• support research on this issue and identify best practice guidance to share amongst partners and others to empower our workforces to deal with these concerns
• encourage production of an all-party parliamentary report seeking official recognition of the need for further research and support to safeguarding partners to tackle this issue
• spread awareness in the general public about financial abuse (similar to that of work around scams and Trading Standards)

To download a copy of the report click the following link: ‘Theft and fraud within families’ or to find out more about the FVT, adopt the Financial Vulnerability Charter, please click the following link: www.fvtaskforce.com.