Kent charity warns how to spot signs of financial abuse
A third of young women have experienced it in the past year
About one in three (36%) girls and young women aged 16 to 24 experienced economic abuse from a current or former partner at some point during the 12 months to March, research for a charity indicates.
Half (50%) of those who had experienced it reported a negative impact on their mental health, such as depression or panic attacks, Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) said.
Economic abuse involves the control of a partner or ex-partner’s finances, and may include taking control of someone’s income, restricting what purchases they can make or running up debts in their name without their consent or knowledge.
It may also include controlling access to facilities that someone needs in order to do a job, such as transport and technology.
Among the 36% of young women who experienced economic abuse, more than a quarter (27%) said the abuser had prevented them from working, studying or training.
One woman told the charity:
“Young people are encouraged to move in together, share finances and plan their futures, but very little is discussed about what happens when it all goes wrong.
“I think parents, schools and young people need to talk about economic abuse much more openly because it can start at such a young age.”
The research, carried out by Ipsos UK on behalf of the charity, found that nearly a third (31%) of teenage girls aged 16 to 18 said they had experienced economic abuse from a current or former partner in the previous 12 months.
In many of these cases, the economic abuse started within weeks, with 17% of 16 to 18-year-olds saying that it started within the first month of the relationship, which was more than double the rate of women aged 22 to 24, at 8%.
Identifying Economic Abuse
Speaking to us, Georgia Hirst from East Kent abuse charity Oasis said:
"It can look very different in different scenarios.
"We live in a country where there's a vast difference in wealth across households and different areas. So it's likely that financial or economic abuse looks different in those scenarios.
"In some, it is restriction of funds, you cannot have money to feed yourself, you cannot have money to get to work.
"But it may also be a means of control of like, I've got the money and I'm going to tell you when you can do this, and there's, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of money to access, but it's not in your control.
"Also things like running up debts in another person's name, so co-signing on things or asking them to take out loans so that the victim is then responsible for could be very high amounts of debts, which stand against you on many different fronts,.
"In education, in housing, though, having a debt to your name can be such a barrier for a long, long time."
Hirst also mentioned that victims could experience the opposite:
"Love bombing is at the beginning of a relationship where it's just amazing. 'I'm going to get you this, I'm going to buy you this.'
"And on the surface, feels great. You know, you get the things you want.
"However, if it comes with a demand attached to it, it isn't as free and easy as having a nice gift or being given this money."
Hirst added:
"I'd say warning signs are just those quite sudden changes.
"Particularly if we see that when a relationship has just been initiated, if our friend has just got into that relationship,
"We may have a cause for concern around those behaviours, like having lots of stuff, lots of things with no real answer as to where the money's come from, or all of a sudden being really tight for money, struggling and seeming kind of desperate."
Support
On where to go for support Hirst said that while there was often a lot of shame associated with finances, professional services were out there:
"We want to hide and keep ourselves to ourselves so nobody finds out. But being open about, 'yeah, this goes on for me. This is how I am with money'. Just being open in that conversation.
"And then if it gets to the point of they're sharing with you that they don't feel in control of their money and they're really worried about this, there are specialist services that they can be supported by.
"There are many initiatives to help people regain financial freedom and security and it is not something to be ashamed of. We live in a climate right now, economically, that is really precarious.
"Everybody is struggling and victims of abuse, they're suffering already, but they're within this climate of overall economic hardship.
"And so there is absolutely no shame, there is so much help and support and you don't have to do this on your own because it feels like a mountain to climb."