Benefits Trafficking: human trafficking of older adults and adults with disabilities.

ABSTRACT: An emerging type of trafficking is targeting overlooked at-risk adults. Benefits Trafficking is the systematic recruitment, harboring, neglect, and financial exploitation of elder and disabled adults who receive government benefits such as Social Security, Veteran's Benefits, Medicaid, and Medicare. Traffickers often pose as kind-hearted individuals offering to provide care for at-risk adults in an in-home setting. Once recruited, at-risk adults are stripped of their government benefits, held against their will, moved from location to location, and denied basic needs such as food, clothing, and adequate shelter. While Benefits Trafficking is a basic civil rights violation issue, it is also a growing public health issue. Victims of Benefits Trafficking are often the forgotten at-risk adults

SUBMITTER: Thomas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10839064 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature