Intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership: Considering the potential for financial elder abuse

Intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership has attracted increasing scholarly interest in recent years. Existing research has focussed primarily on its impact on inequality, housing market outcomes and notions of meritocracy, as well as the relational dynamics through which it is negotiated. The topic of financial elder abuse has, however, remained an area of relative silence in this literature despite concerns raised by advocacy groups. In this article, we consider how intergenerational financial assistance may facilitate attitudes and behaviours that can result in financial elder abuse. To do so, we draw on an analysis of the Banking Code of Practice and the presumption of advancement, each of which shapes the way intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership unfolds in Australia. We then consider how such arrangements play out in practice through analysis of interviews conducted with donors and recipients of assistance of this type. We ultimately argue that in the context of intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership, the potential for financial elder abuse should be considered not just as an individual or family issue rooted in relationships, but as the outcome of ageist social attitudes and structural problems in the asset economy.