Staying in Control
Financial Safeguarding: Stay in Control of your money
The best way to keep money safe is to stay in control of it. If a person doesn’t have control of their money, they could be at risk of financial abuse. Safeguarding Ireland has produced a comprehensive suite of four information resources on financial safeguarding. These are:
- A comprehensive Guide titled, Staying in Control of your Money, Benefits and Assets. (for stakeholder organisations, professionals and families/supporters)
- A Summary titled Staying in Control, a Plain English Guide (for stakeholder organisations, families/supporters and service users)
- An Issues Paper titled: Adults at Risk: Staying in Control of Their Money, Benefits and Assets (for policy makers and experts).
- A Video Animation of the key messages.
The Guide
The Guide is a significant resource which goes into detail on all aspects of financial safeguarding including managing money, support arrangements for people who need help with their money, State backed schemes such as the Fair Deal and also taking account of recent developments such as the assisted decision-making legislation and the Consumer Protection Code 2025, which came into effect in 2026.
In many areas of financial safeguarding similar principles apply and each section of the Guide can be read as standalone best principles relevant to the specific content of that chapter.
The document also contains a section of 11 different personas. These are created scenarios to thematically reflect circumstances when challenges with financial safeguarding arise, and advice is provided on how to best navigate them. Scenarios covered include people who are older and may be less independent, have an acquired brain injury or are living with a disability.
At the end of the Guide there is a comprehensive listing of organisations to contact for support and services, with phone numbers and links included.
It is accompanied by a short Summary Plain English version.
Thirdly there is an Issues Paper on financial safeguarding which sets out challenges for policy and practice which arose while compiling the Guide. It provides an analysis of these challenges and provides 18 specific recommendations of what can be done to strengthen financial safeguarding in Ireland.
The Video Animation is circa one minute long, giving a visual summary. Further thematic video resources on financial safeguarding are to follow.
This body of work links back to earlier work on financial safeguarding carried National by the Centre for the Protection of Older People (NCPOP) at UCD, and particularly the 2014 report Keep Control, Safeguarding Your Finances in Later life.
With any queries or questions contact info@safeguardingireland.org
