REFUGE UNCOVERS EVIDENCE OF ENDEMIC FINANCIAL ABUSE AND PRODUCES A GUIDE TO HELP WOMEN COPE
REFUGE UNCOVERS EVIDENCE OF ENDEMIC FINANCIAL ABUSE AND PRODUCES A GUIDE TO HELP WOMEN COPE
Everyone’s talking about the credit crunch and how it will affect us. But what about the thousands of women who live with their own economic crisis on a daily basis and have done so for years and years?
New research announced today by Refuge, national domestic violence charity, shows that financial abuse is a major issue facing women experiencing domestic violence. 89% of respondents who took part in a recent Refuge survey told the charity that economic abuse was a common part of their experience of domestic violence.
Domestic violence kills two women every week in Englandand Walesalone. One woman in four will experience physical violence at some time in her life. But there are other ways in which an abuser can control a woman’s life which are just as, if not more, devastating and abusive. This abuse includes controlling techniques like taking all of a woman’s money, strictly limiting what she is allowed to spend, putting debt in her name and refusing her access to benefit entitlements.
Some of the key themes emerging from the research showed that:
- Almost half the sample who had experienced economic abuse reported that their abuser had interfered with their education and employment
- 44% of women who were still ‘allowed’ to work were harassed by their partner at work and economically exploited by being made to hand over their wages
- Just under three quarters of respondents reported that the abuser controlled their access to economic resources through taking control of their bank account and refusing to let them have money of their own
- 18% of respondents also reported that their partner had forced them to take out loans, credit cards, contract mobile phones in their own name but then denied them access to these items
- 41% of respondents identified economic abuse as having a negative impact on their emotional health
- 41% of respondents who had experienced economic abuse reported being economically dependent on the abuser and feeling a total loss of control
- The majority of the women and children experiencing economic abuse who were interviewed were what the Government considers to be financially excluded with around one in three of the respondents accessing Refuge’s domestic violence services not having a bank account (compared to one in twenty national average)
Nicola Sharp, head of policy at Refuge, says:
“Money is a worry for many of us in the current economic climate, but for women experiencing economic abuse, their financial situation can seem hopelessly bleak. If an abused woman has no money of her own, has massive debts which her partner has run up in her name and has never been allowed by her partner to practice the money-management skills most of us take for granted, starting out on her own can be a terrifying prospect.
“Women coming to Refuge often flee with no more than the clothes they are wearing and effectively have to start over from scratch. But those are only the women that we have been able to reach. What about all the rest? We hope this guide will help even more women to understand their rights and give them the confidence to reach out and get help.”
Charlotte*, a survivor of domestic violence, told Refuge:
“I lived with financial abuse for years. My ex didn’t need to hit me to control me – he simply took all my money and then made me ask him for every penny I ever needed. He’d regularly deny me money for basic purchases such as deodorant or milk and nappies for our daughter. And he was cunning too. Unbeknown to me he put all the bills, credit cards and any big purchases he’d made in my name so when I finally found the courage to leave him I was saddled with a whole host of debts and commitments I’d never signed up to.
“I live in fear, even to this day, of getting yet another demand for money owned for something I have no clue about. Thanks to the team at Refuge I’ve been working to sort out the debts and start my financial planning from scratch. It’s a huge daunting task but I’m getting there and I feel liberated by being allowed to do the simple things myself.”
To support its financial abuse work Refuge has launched a support tool for women who are currently experiencing financial abuse or who may be trying to set up a new financial life after abuse. ‘You can afford to leave’ has been funded by HBOS Foundation.
As a result of Refuge’s research the charity is calling for Government to:
- Recognise and address economic abuse within its work on equality, financial exclusion, child poverty and domestic violence
- Ensure that welfare benefits are fast-tracked for women who have experienced domestic violence
- Make teaching on economic abuse, as part of teaching about domestic violence, a mandatory part of the school curriculum
Refuge is also calling on the high street banks to consider implementing a protocol for dealing with banking issues related to economic abuse and domestic violence.
Tony Hetherington, consumer journalist of the year and financial expert providing advice to readers of the Financial Mail, says:
“I work as a financial Agony Aunt, but it wasn’t until I was asked to help a victim of domestic violence that I realised the extent, and the consequences, of economic abuse. A wife had fled the marital home after suffering serious and repeated attacks. She won a divorce, and a few years later she remarried and started a family.
“Then, out of the blue, the bank that had provided the mortgage for her former home contacted her with a demand for £36,000. Her ex-husband had stayed in the property but failed to pay the mortgage, and as she was a joint borrower with him, she was being held responsible for the entire debt.
“Because she had rebuilt her life and had a new home, she had become an easier target for the bank than her ex-husband.
“In the end, a compromise was reached. But it became clear along the way that banks and building societies have only a vague policy – or no policy at all – on how to react to domestic violence and its victims.
“The new guide from Refuge will be enormously valuable in giving practical advice to those victims on a whole range of financial matters. I hope, though, that it will also be a step on the way towards financial institutions themselves agreeing acceptable standards for the way they can help, rather than hinder, their customers at a time of personal crisis.”
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*Name and all identifying elements have been changed.
Qualitative and quantitative research was carried out over three months (May-July 08) with 55 women accessing a variety of Refuge’s domestic violence services.
For more information or to recieve hard copies of either of the research reports or the financial guide for women experiencing domestic violence email press@refuge.org.uk or call 0207 395 7731
