Financial abuse is one tool used by a perpetrator to control and isolate their victim. It’s a form of domestic violence, and has become the fourth most commonly reported abuse to Police since coercive control became illegal in NSW four months ago.
And it’s a serious issue for Northern Beaches residents, as is the broader category of economic abuse, explains Lifeline Northern Beaches – a Balgowlah based charity which provides financial counselling in addition to its broader counselling services.
“Financial abuse and economic abuse are often used interchangeably but there is significant difference between the two,” Iresha Lehane, Financial Counselling Services Manager at Lifeline Northern Beaches told Manly Observer.
“Financial abuse is about restricting access to money, like restricting access to bank accounts, or restricting access to cash. So, a person’s wage might be paid into the partner’s bank account because they restrict that person’s access to money. Financial abuse is one tool used by a perpetrator within economic abuse to control and isolate their victim.
“Economic abuse is broader than money or finances and extends to housing, transport, food, employment and study. For example, the perpetrator might destroy their partner’s credit history so they cannot get a home loan, or they might make their partner bankrupt so they can’t get a rental property, or they might refuse to pay for childcare so they can’t work and then they might isolate them from family so they can’t lean on them for support.”
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported 16 per cent (1.6 million) women and 7.8 per cent (745,000) men have experienced economic abuse from a current or previous partner in Australia. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, the most common type of non-physical violence abuse was financial abuse. And 27 per cent of men who killed their current or former partner between 2010 and 2018 used economic or financial abuse tactics to diminish the victim’s ability to support themselves and financially rely on their abuser.
Economic abuse falls under coercive control as it involves a purposeful pattern of behaviour that controls a person’s ability to acquire, use and maintain economic resources in a way that threatens their economic safety and potential for self-sufficiency.
While the concept of coercive control is only relatively new, Iresha said economic abuse has been happening for generations.
“Our dads did this to our mums,” she said.
She was talking about how it was only in the early 70s that women could keep working after getting married. It wasn’t until the late 70s that women could get a loan from a bank without a male guarantor. It was considered normal for husbands to control the household finances and to keep their wives spending in check. According to Iresha, the structural imbalance in the financial power dynamic within relationships from previous generations and the normalness of that imbalance has unintentionally been passed down. This is why there isn’t a lot of awareness of economic abuse. It is also why women over 55 are the largest growing demographic to be homeless or living in shelters or seeking financial counselling support from the service that Iresha manages.
“We can find it really difficult to identify financial imbalance in a relationship as potential abuse,” she added.
“Abuse is a really scary word to use and to identify and point out someone’s behaviour, but what we as a community need to consider is the power dynamic within a relationship and what’s it doing to the other person. We all have a human right to safety and to making autonomous decisions.”
“We all have a human right to safety and to making autonomous decisions.”
She explained that there is a difference between your partner monitoring and judging what you spend money on versus you and your partner having a shared household budget and saving goals with shared accountability.
Another example is one person not being allowed to work versus an agreement for one person being the financial lead, while another stays at home with the children for a period of time. In other words, there are signs of controlling behaviour versus respectful conversations and joint decisions.
Iresha hopes that with increased awareness, women who experience economic abuse and feel trapped can identify this as abuse and seek help, as well as women who may be at the very early stages of economic abuse can reach out for support.
In fact, there’s even a day dedicated to economic abuse – November 26.
“If someone feels unease about the financial power dynamic in their relationship, I want them to come to us and begin a conversation about how they talk about money in their relationship, how their structures are set up and see what steps we can take to shift that imbalance,” she said.
Lifeline Northern Beaches provides free, unlimited financial counselling sessions which focus on alleviating financial hardship related to debt and cost-of-living, budgeting skills and financial literacy to increase financial confidence and post separation Financial Safety Planning.
“If someone is reading this and wants to reach out to us, they can call us at 9949 5522,” Iresha explained.
“We would have a non-judgemental and confidential discussion about what they want out of financial counselling and then we would book them in for their first appointment. If they want to continue, they will have ongoing appointments with us.
“If we feel the person needs additional resources beyond our scope, then we will arrange referrals to other services to build a network of support around them.”
If someone is concerned about a friend or family member, they can contact 13 11 14 or 1800 RESPECT.
“Over the last financial year, we’ve had 286 enquiries (33 per cent increase on last year), 129 cases completed (45 per cent increase), 64 percent growth in new clients and a total of 180 clients averaging 10.4 hours support per client to resolve their financial issues,” Sarah Grattan, CEO of Lifeline Northern Beaches, told us.
“The free service costs us $200,000 per year to provide.”
Lifeline Northern Beaches is running an appeal to increase their capacity to provide more financial counselling to those in the community facing economic abuse (if you’d like to know more or donate please go here).
Iresha added that they don’t receive funding from the government and rely on donations made by the public, and funds raised through their local stores.
“We need to raise these funds given the growth in demand for our financial counselling service so that we can increase our capacity, increase the hours we can support someone and also increase awareness of economic abuse so more people come forward,” she said.
Lifeline Northern Beaches is also running a free workshop on 27 November at St Matts, focused on understanding domestic and family violence, bringing together business leaders and community champions to strive towards a stronger, safer and more empowered community. For more details: Learn with Lifeline Northern Beaches.
If you are experiencing economic abuse or would like to talk to a financial counsellor at Lifeline Northern Beaches, please call: 02 9949 5522
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence please call: 1800 RESPECT
If you’d like to support Lifeline Northern Beaches’ fundraising campaign, please click here.
