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About us

Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is the only UK charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming responses to it.   

One in five women in the UK has experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner in the past 12 months. The effects can last a lifetime, with some women never free of the abuser’s control.   

“Economic abuse is why I kept returning.”

Without control of the money or items needed to leave and live independently, many women are forced to stay with abusers for longer and experience more harm as a result.  

Women who experience economic abuse are five times more likely to experience physical abuse than those who don’t. When women experience economic abuse in the context of coercive control, they are at increased risk of being killed.    

We work to save lives and stop economic abuse forever. 

Our vision

A world in which all women and girls achieve economic equality and can live their lives free of abuse and exploitation.

What we do  

We raise awareness of economic abuse and influence changes to professional practice, systems, policy, legislation, and regulation so they recognise economic abuse and better support victim-survivors.   

Our professional training makes sure when survivors reach out to the police, confide in a GP, or disclose to their bank, they are given the right support. 

Our work focuses on supporting women because of the disproportionate impact that economic abuse has on them. But we know that anyone can experience economic abuse. We want peer support and services to be available for all victim-survivors of economic abuse. We work with a range of organisations with expertise in supporting those affected.   

Read more about what we do.  

What we have achieved  

From influencing policy to driving change in professional practice, we have made strides towards economic abuse being more widely recognised and towards better responses for victim-survivors.   

Our achievements include:   

  • shaping the Domestic Abuse Act to both name and define economic abuse in legislation
  • driving the change to the law that sees all forms of domestic abuse that occur after a relationship has ended criminalised  
  • piloting the Economic Abuse Evidence Form, in partnership with Money Advice Plus, to transform the support that victim-survivors receive from creditors and debt advice services   
  • establishing the Financial Support Line for Victims of Domestic Abuse, run by our frontline partner Money Advice Plus, to provide both one-off advice and a casework service, open to all victim-survivors
  • training thousands of professionals in sectors including money and debt advice, financial services, housing, the police and domestic abuse support services.   

Read more about our story and our impact.   

What we believe   

We are driven by a core set of values that underpin everything we do.   

Our set-up  

We are a team of dedicated professionals, both women and men, working remotely. With no office, our overheads are low. This means that the funds valued supporters donate go further towards creating the changes we want to see.    

Find out more    

Watch our multiple award-winning film developed by creative communications agency, Media Zoo. It highlights the lived experience of this devastating but largely invisible form of abuse. 

Trigger warning // domestic abuse

The following video contains scenes that some viewers may find distressing.

More information

What we do
Our strategy
Our impact
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