Official statistics for 2024 – 2025 reveal that across England the NHS took the number one spot for making abuse allegations where older people, aged 65+, were said to be the victims of abuse, yet, as with all safeguarding allegations, the majority of allegations were found not to meet the statutory threshold for a Section 42 Care Act enquiry meaning that the allegations disappeared into a black hole despite the untold suffering of those who were in fact victims of the state and their families.
In England, the NHS were responsible for 28% (totalling 87,360 allegations) whilst Care Providers were responsible for 24% (totalling 87,360 allegations). In Northern Ireland, Social Workers and Nursing were responsible for 38% of allegations (totalling 1,824 allegations) whilst Social Care Providers such as Private and Voluntary Homes made 21% of allegations (totalling 1,008 allegations). In Scotland, the NHS also took number one spot making a whopping 26% of allegations (totalling 7,280 allegations) with Care Homes came second making 20% of allegations (5,600 allegations). In Wales, 42% (totalling 4,704 allegations) were made by residential and nursing homes with Health Boards in NHS Wales making 22% of allegations (4,704 allegations).
For the 65+ group, the most common report of abuse is financial/material abuse. In a cynical twist, whilst families see themselves as managing their parents’ finances for their benefit, Social Workers are increasingly using “Financial Safeguarding” as a reason to strip families of Power of Attorney and replace them with Local Authority Deputies whilst often using dementia as a stepping stone to argue that a person, alleged to have been abused, lacks the mental capacity to make their own decisions.
In England, Approximately 70% of safeguarding concerns involving those aged 65+ do not proceed to a Section 42 enquiry. Of the 87,360 reports made by Health Staff, roughly 88% fail to meet the statutory threshold whilst the Stop Safeguarding Now Coalition has found evidence that the NHS uses Safeguarding reports as a “Cover Your Assets” exercise during hospital discharges to pass the legal responsibility for the older person to the Local Authority, even where no abuse has occurred.
In Northern Ireland, the Trust-led model results in a massive intake of “concerns” that rarely result in actual protection with 78% of safeguarding allegations involving abuse of older people resulting in no further action with the rest simply putting the person on the radar of the Health and Social Care Trust.
In Scotland, the “Three-Point Test” is used to gatekeep support, and it is used ruthlessly against the elderly with 85% of referrals for those aged 65+ screened out at the initial stage. While the state uses these reports to justify the need for a Welfare Guardianship (claiming the person is “at risk”), they simultaneously drop 85% of the abuse allegations once the legal “grip” on the person’s liberty is secured.
In Wales, they have the highest concentration of provider-led reports, and consequently, the highest rate of baseless claims of abuse against older people with 82% of reports for the 65+ group not meeting the grade for a safeguarding enquiry.
Across the 65+ demographic, the state has engineered a ‘diagnosis-to-detention’ pipeline for our elders. As of August 2025, dementia diagnoses in England reached a record 474,000 for the 65+ demographic. This isn’t just a medical trend; it’s a legal trigger. In the same period, Local Authorities moved to strip the rights of 275,937 seniors through Deprivation of Liberty (DoLS) applications.
By labeling the individual with dementia and then generating a ‘safeguarding concern’—the majority of which the state later admits are baseless—the government creates a legal vacuum. In this vacuum, the family’s Power of Attorney is bypassed, their expertise is dismissed as ‘unprofessional,’ and the ability to care for a loved one is forcibly transferred to the state. The NHS provides the diagnosis, but it is the Council that turns that diagnosis into a prison sentence.
In Northern Ireland, the “Internal Loop” is arguably at its most aggressive because the system lacks even the basic “checks and balances” found in England, Wales and Scotland.
While England has the Court of Protection and Scotland has the Sheriff Courts, Northern Ireland’s Mental Capacity Act (NI) 2016 allows the state to essentially “self-authorize” the detention of the elderly. The process starts with a trust panel where internal meetings of the Health and Social Care board allow Social Workers and Trust Doctors to decide the fate of whether an elderly relative should be locked in a home. These internal Trust panels self-authorised DoL applications at a rate of approximately 96 – 98% with the state acting as the Judge, the Jury and the Executioner.
In Scotland a record number of 20,152 Scots are now subject to Welfare Guardianship orders with over 65% of these being aged 65+ with applications having surged over the last two reporting cycles by over 25%. 32.3% of those have a primary diagnosis of Dementia. In Scotland, the NHS much prefers that older people are discharged to care homes than their own homes or to family with bespoke care packages taking longer to set up, causing bed blocking at a cost of £350 – £370m per year to NHS Scotland. If the family object, they find themselves subject to proceedings bought by Local Authorities for them to become Local Authority Guardians removing the voice of the family.
Wales, meanwhile underfunds its councils so severely that “standard rate” beds are often miles away. Families are forced into “Top-Up” agreements, paying thousands out of pocket to avoid their loved ones being exiled from their community.
Across four nations, we see a synchronized assault on the elderly that begins with a medical label and ends with the liquidation of a lifetime’s work. By weaponizing ‘safeguarding’ into a tool for bed-management and budget-balancing, the state has effectively declared the family an enemy of the vulnerable.
We must call this what it is: State-sponsored abduction. When 88% of allegations are baseless, yet 100% of the control remains with the state, the ‘safety’ being discussed isn’t for the person—it’s for the institution’s bottom line.
The Stop Safeguarding Now Coalition demands an immediate end to the ‘Internal Loop.’ A dementia diagnosis must never be a legal trapdoor, and a hospital discharge must never be a hostage negotiation. It is time to return the power of care to the people who actually provide it: the families. Our parents are not ‘assets’ to be harvested; they are citizens with the right to grow old in the homes they built, surrounded by the people who love them. The state didn’t build our families, and we will no longer allow the state to dismantle them.”