Data from a report available on the Ombudsman's Office website showed 46 calls about abuse against older people were counted from the beginning of the year to 31 May, out of a total of 1,043, representing 4.4 percent of the total.

Of the 46 calls, 15 relate to neglect of care (in the family or institution), 11 to material and financial abuse, 10 to mistreatment (in the family or institution), six to domestic violence and four to abandonment.

The Ombudsman's elderly line, which provides information and referrals regarding the rights and support that assist the older population, registered 1,311 calls in the last five years (2016-2021).

According to the data, in general terms, abuse situations represent around 10 percent of the total calls received on the Elderly Line (minimum 6 percent in 2020, maximum 12 percent in 2017).

The figures, according to the report, show no notable variations over the past five years.

Of the 1,311 calls recorded in the last five years, 499 relate to neglect, 401 to mistreatment, 210 to material and financial abuse, 141 to domestic violence and 60 to abandonment.

According to the report, as a rule, the aggressors are people very close to the elderly - namely their own children and grandchildren, who have alcoholism, drug addiction or mental health problems.

The action of the Senior Citizen's Hotline, depending on each specific case and its gravity, "may involve either information and forwarding to the competent entity, or signalling the situation and/or intermediating and monitoring the action of the competent entity. These actions occur, sensibly, in a proportion of 86 percent and 14 percent, respectively".

The Ombudsman's Office underlines that the actions of the police (PSP and GNR) may be immediate, namely within the scope of the so-called "integrated proximity policing programme", as well as the services of the Public Prosecution Service, given that public crimes are at stake, and the local social action services, such as the local Social Security services, parish councils or municipal councils.