Amy* knew her husband could kill her – he made sure of that.
She’d known for 25 years of violence and sexual abuse, but when a doctor warned her children were in danger, she was finally ready to leave.
Yet Amy, once the director of a large company earning six figures, had no money. He’d made sure of that, too.
Money blog: Read the latest
“What he did financially was to make sure that I became powerless,” says Amy.
“I was totally beholden to him.”
Amy is one of potentially millions of victims, mainly women, who have experienced economic abuse – when someone restricts or exploits their partner’s access to money and resources like food, clothing and transportation.
A survey of 3,000 women by charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) found 15% had been impacted in the year to November 2024, which would be equivalent to 4.1 million across the UK.
Keir Starmer has called it a “national emergency” as the government gears up to announce a new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy within the next few weeks.
Its aim is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, after the last VAWG strategy initiated by the Conservatives in 2021 made “little progress”, according to the National Audit Office.
SEA, which advocates for people like Amy, has watched on as successive governments have failed to tackle the issue despite launching strategy after strategy.
It is hoping this time is different and that economic abuse is a key focus for the government.
“It’s the only way to help survivors and their children escape and safely rebuild their lives,” says chief executive Sam Smethers.
“To break the cycle of domestic abuse once and for all, the government must put tackling economic abuse at the heart of its strategy.”
Most perpetrators do not economically abuse in isolation, combining it with physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Some 56% of women who experienced economic abuse from a current or ex-partner also faced other abusive behaviour.
‘He was…
