From making waves to saving lives

Economic abuse has devastated the lives of 4.2 million UK women in the past year alone – that’s one in six women. Abusers leave victim-survivors afraid, in debt, isolated, homeless, and, in many cases, unable to flee dangerous situations.  

Our bold new strategy, Changing systems, saving lives, sets out an ambitious plan for lasting change to support victim-survivors, disrupt abusers, and prevent economic abuse.

By building on our achievements to date, we can achieve our mission to save lives and stop economic abuse forever. We are proud to share some of our achievements from 2024-25, the final year of our strategy Making waves.

The Aviva Foundation is proud to support Surviving Economic Abuse. Their approach is grounded in the lived experiences of victim-survivors, and this insight and authenticity is reflected across the organisation, and in how they engage with others. Their ability to see the big picture while remaining pragmatic and focused on tangible progress makes them a vital force – and a valued partner – in tackling economic abuse.”

— Alex Christopoulos, Aviva Foundation

Increasing public understanding of economic abuse

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83

pieces of media coverage

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300k

website visitors

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850k

views on social media

Awareness matters. When women understand what economic abuse is, or know about Surviving Economic Abuse, they’re more likely to seek help. 

Our public awareness campaigns have reached millions, and now half of UK women have heard the term economic abuse. That means more victim-survivors and their families know that support is out there.

To build a future free from economic abuse, we will continue to increase public understanding of economic abuse and the signs to look out for, with a focus on reaching marginalised groups.

Transforming local frontline responses

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“Surviving Economic Abuse has become part of the VAWG partnership, delivering awareness-raising workshops on financial and economic abuse and coerced debt to services across our partnership. This has resulted in more professionals gaining a better understanding of the impact of economic abuse on the day-to-day lives of survivors as well as its longer-term legacy. The work of SEA is important and welcomed.”

Violence Against Women and Girls Commissioner, Brighton and Hove City Council

Victim-survivors rely on a coordinated community response to flee economic abusers and safely rebuild their lives, but too many local services still lack the knowledge and tools to help.

We’re changing that. Through our Compass project with Living Without Abuse and RISE, we’ve already trained 113 frontline professionals to better respond, benefitting over 1,000 victim-survivors. We also influenced Brighton and Hove’s new violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy by getting economic abuse named within it.

And in partnership with two local areas, we’ve developed the Economic Abuse Advocacy Model – a joined-up approach to supporting victim-survivors to rebuild their lives.

The model can include supporting victim-survivors to access grants, benefits, debt advice and housing. It can also include supporting victim-survivors with employment, helping them to gain or regain financial stability and build an independent life. 

Now, we’re piloting the model to test survivor-informed solutions, laying the groundwork to scale it nationwide. Because every victim-survivor deserves access to safety and support, no matter where they live.

Legal, regulatory and policy change

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“Surviving Economic Abuse tirelessly champions and amplifies the experiences of victim-survivors, helping make a practical difference in their lives and the lives of so many others. I’m grateful for the advice and research they’ve shared in my first year as an MP, which has allowed me to drive forward my campaign to have the credit files of victim-survivors restored.”

Matthew Patrick MP

The Prime Minister calling economic abuse a “national emergency” his government is committed to addressing.

Meetings with six new government ministers following our General Election campaign, co-created with the Experts by Experience Group.

Getting economic abuse named as a cross-cutting theme in the forthcoming Financial Inclusion Strategy and successfully influencing the VAWG strategy to include measures to tackle economic abuse.

Publishing ‘Locked into a mortgage, locked out of my home’, prompting the Financial Conduct Authority to consult on potential regulatory reforms to improve support for victim-survivors of joint mortgage abuse.

If we are going to break the cycle of domestic abuse once and for all, we must reform the very systems that abusers misuse to maintain economic control.

That means reforming laws, policies, and regulations to disrupt perpetrators and ensure survivors are supported to safely escape and rebuild their lives.

Following the successes of this year, we have firmly established SEA as a key government stakeholder, laying a strong foundation to drive lasting, meaningful change for victim-survivors.

Working with the financial services sector

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Our partnership with SEA is hugely impactful in helping us understand how to be there for our customers and create products that support them as they rebuild their lives. SEA’s expertise, grounded in lived experience, also helps us ensure that our customers feel safe to share sensitive information with us, so we can connect them to the right people when they need it

— Monzo

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24

financial services firms to respond to customers experiencing economic abuse

25

financial services firms using the Economic Abuse Evidence Form

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250

professionals trained to recognise and respond to economic abuse

Financial services firms can and do play a critical role in tackling economic abuse. Yet too few victim-survivors are turning to their bank for help.

Our collaboration with HSBC UK is testing innovative ways to support those affected by joint mortgage economic abuse, while our long-standing partnership with Lloyds Banking Group has already enabled over 18,000 customers to access specialist support through their Domestic Abuse and Financial Abuse team.

And to drive consistency and confidence across the industry, we’ve rolled out the Economic Abuse Evidence Form – developed by Money Advice Plus and delivered in partnership with SEA – to more financial services with the support of UK Finance.

We’re committed to a future where no one’s finances are weaponised against them. That means deepening collaboration with firms to ensure consistent good practice at scale and better outcomes for victim-survivors, so they aren’t left paying the price for an abuser’s crimes.

Survivor voices at the heart of change

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Having a non-judgemental forum for explaining why some changes needed to be made and what they would look like was a useful way of taking the problems I had faced to organisations who could reduce the impact of them on victim-survivors

— Experts by Experience Group member

The Experts by Experience Group (EEG) is a group of women with lived experience of economic abuse who inform all the charity’s work and speak about what they have gone through so that they can be a force for change.

We’ve engaged the EEG 54 times to shape and strengthen our work, ensuring our new three-year strategy is rooted in lived experience.

EEG members have joined us in meetings with key decision-makers, including a roundtable with then Shadow Safeguarding Minister Alex Davies-Jones MP, now Justice Victims Minister, who confirmed that “economic abuse will be a core part of the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy.”

EEG members have co-designed survivor-centred products with financial services firms, helping to drive real-world change in how the industry responds to economic abuse.

And in partnership with Southall Black Sisters (SBS), we brought together EEG members and victim-survivors supported by SBS for a powerful roundtable. This session contributed to the Treasury Committee’s inquiry into cash acceptance, building on our evidence to push for regulation that helps survivors safely escape abusers and the removal of barriers migrant survivors face to opening an independent bank account.

Our work is shaped by economic abuse victim-survivors. We will continue to grow the community of diverse victim-survivors we work alongside and centre their knowledge and lived experiences in all that we do.

Thank you for being part of our mission to save lives and stop economic abuse

Our vision is a world in which all women and girls achieve economic equality and can live their lives free of abuse and exploitation. Not only surviving but thriving. We can’t do it without your support.

We want to thank our individual supporters, partners, and funders who make all our work possible. With your support, we create change for victim-survivors that can be life-changing and sometimes life-saving.

We would also like to thank our dedicated Trustees, Advisers and Ambassadors, who all volunteer their time so we can achieve our mission.

We know that we can only achieve our goals if we work alongside others and would like to thank our frontline partners who work tirelessly to support victim-survivors.

And we would like to thank all the women who give their time and expertise as part of the Experts by Experience Group. The strength and courage of these women, and their insight and passion for positive change, drive our work. We are proud to be working alongside them.

Previous impact reports

Impact Report 2023–24

Impact Report 2022–23

Impact Report 2021–22

Impact Report 2020–21

Impact Report 2019–20

Impact Report 2018–19