Local domestic abuse charity says education is critical to stopping financial abuse
1 in 3 women between the ages of 16 and 24 experienced financial abuse from a current or former partner at some point over last year
A local domestic abuse charity says education is key to stopping economic abuse following alarming new statistics
1 in 3 women between the ages of 16 and 24 experienced financial abuse from a current or former partner at some point over last year
Chelsea Haslett from Stop Domestic Abuse in Hampshire explains just how damaging financial abuse can be for this age group
"When we're looking at the 16 to 25 age range we see perpetrators building a reliance on them. So taking away or making it difficult for them to be able to earn their own money, or using control or threats of violence to influence kind of their choices on where they're going to learn.
So the education settings, training, employment, stop them from studying, stop them from having a job or even earning money. And even when they are earning money, actually receiving kind of that experience, they take their money, their benefits from them and leaving them with nothing"
Chelsea also says the long term consequences of this type of abuse can be devastating
"How do they get to work? How do they get to college, university, their training centres? But you've also got a kind of longer term impact as well, like future employment opportunities due to that prevention early on of accessing education and work opportunities."
The new data also showed half of those who had experienced it reported a negative impact on their mental health, such as depression or panic attacks
Chelsea says this was in line with what she sees at the charity
"We're seeing depression, anxiety, panic attacks, then you go on to isolations. Actually, not only could a perpetrator be using control as a way of isolation, actually take away somebody's access to money that was going to further isolate them."
With abuse often starting with people still in education, Chelsea says it has to be the perfect environment to make people more aware about the topic
"Prevention is the key here. I feel that within education settings and that goes from school age all the way through college, university, it should kind of be mandatory for lessons around relationships to form part of the conversations that are happening."
Chelsea also gave a few pointers as what potential early red flags to look out for could be
"If someone starts to become overly secretive or you know lots of excuses well they can't do this they can't do that or if they kind of got an apprenticeship or they get some sort of pocket monies and you know they've just been paid recently but they're constantly running out of money."