Refuge uncovers evidence of endemic financial abuse

Last year, we conducted a survey of our service users in which 89% of respondents told us that economic abuse was a common part of their experience of domestic violence. Financial 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. 41% of respondents identified this economic abuse as having a negative impact on their emotional health.

We are now calling on Government to recognise and address economic abuse within its work on equality, financial exclusion, child poverty and domestic violence, and to ensure that welfare benefits are fast-tracked for women who have experienced domestic violence. As part of this work, Refuge met with Harriet Harman QC MP, Minister for Women, in January to discuss policy developments in the domestic violence sector and to share with her our work on economic abuse.

As announced in our last newsletter, we have launched a financial guide containing practical
advice for women on how to prepare financially to leave an abusive partner, how to access safe
accommodation and how to take control of their finances in the long term. In doing so, it aims to
increase women’s awareness of the financial support available to them so that they can live their lives free from violence. ‘You can afford to leave’, funded by HBOS Foundation, is availableavailable from our website: www.refuge.org.uk.