Violence and Maltreatment of the Elderly in Hungary

Abstract

Although Hungary, just like other European countries, is an ageing society, the situation of the elderly does not enjoy a high priority in public policy. Neither a governmental organization dealing with the special problems of the elderly nor an Equality Plan for the Elderly exists. The social policy of the current government declares the care of the elderly to be the responsibility of family members. As before 1990 full employment characterized the Hungarian economy, both women and men in the oldest generation get a pension that provides some economic independence for them. However, the employment rate decreased drastically after the 1990 transition and the mass of people close to retirement age were not able to get a new job. They can get now a very low level of pension. Growing social inequality characterizes the elderly population group in Hungary. Typically, violence against older people is committed by adult children or grandchildren. Unemployed, alcoholic children return to parental home and live off the pension of parents. Widowed women are especially endangered as they are not able to resist this kind of financial abuse as it goes together with physical and emotional abuse and maltreatment too. Because of the lack of any social support system, no institutional mechanism can prevent this kind of violence. Intimate partner violence is also not an unknown phenomenon among older couples. Analysis of police files proved that victims of IPV in older age cannot get enough support from either friends and family members or police or social institutions. Support system of IPV victims is weak, and it has no special protocol for older victims.We have limited information about institutional violence. The elderly who have not enough pensions are not able to finance high standard private health care and social care; therefore, they spend their last years or months in overcrowded elderly homes and hospitals. The broken up social support system in Hungary will not provide a brighter future in this field.