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.
Our bold three-year strategy will drive legal and policy reforms and systemic change in frontline, financial, and public services to support victim-survivors, disrupt abusers, and prevent economic abuse. This will help ensure that victim-survivors and their children can achieve economic justice, safety, and freedom.
Signatures 61
Goal 50
Speak out. Take action. Together, we can stop economic abuse.
The Prime Minister has called economic abuse a “national emergency”. But we need more than words – we need action.
That’s why our bold new strategy, developed alongside victim-survivors, sets out an ambitious plan for lasting change to support victim-survivors, disrupt abusers, and prevent economic abuse.
But we can’t do this alone.
Will you join us? Because together, we can save lives and stop economic abuse forever.
A “national emergency”
Economic abuse is widespread and deeply harmful, devastating the lives on 4.1 million UK women in the past year alone. Abusers leave victim-survivors afraid, in debt, isolated, homeless, and, in many cases, unable to flee dangerous situations.
Many victim-survivors don’t seek help because abusers make it difficult for them to recognise their behaviour as abusive. Often victim-survivors fear not being believed or think that support is unavailable or unsafe to access.
Young women, disabled women, Black, Asian and racially minoritised women and women with children experience economic abuse at alarmingly high rates and suffer the greatest harm. Abusers exploit every vulnerability – immigration status, institutional discrimination, support needs, even children – to maintain control.
Changing systems, saving lives
We must break the cycle of domestic abuse so women and children can safely flee and rebuild their lives after economic abuse.
To achieve this, we will drive legal and policy reforms and systemic change in frontline, financial, and public services to support victim-survivors, rather than enable abusers. We also need to increase public understanding so more people, including victim-survivors, can spot the signs of economic abuse and know how to access support.
Because there is hope. When women understand what economic abuse is, or know about Surviving Economic Abuse, they’re more likely to seek help.
Our new three-year strategy builds on everything we’ve achieved to date. Developed in partnership with the Experts by Experience Group, a group of women who have experienced economic abuse, it sets out our ambitious vision for systemic change to support survivors, disrupt abusers, and prevent economic abuse.
Our aim is to deliver meaningful and lasting change so that over one million women and their children can achieve economic justice, safety, and freedom.
Increase public understanding of economic abuse and begin to change the behaviours that drive it
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Economic abuse is still not widely understood, especially by marginalised women who are most affected. We will raise awareness of economic abuse and how to access support. We will also identify the attitudes and behaviours that underpin perpetrators’ abuse and how we can work with partners to change this.
By 2028, we will have achieved:
15 million UK women reporting that they know a little or a lot about economic abuse.
Transform local frontline responses to tackle economic abuse
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Local services – like councils, domestic abuse organisations, banks and debt advisors – play a vital role in supporting victim-survivors to establish their economic freedom and safety. We will develop a model for economic abuse advocacy that can be adopted across the country to help build stronger, coordinated, local responses to economic abuse in every community.
By 2028, we will have achieved:
Developed a local Economic Abuse Advocacy Model, backed by influential supporters, to help drive forward a national roll-out.
Multiple local authorities and one central government team piloting the EAEF for public sector debts.
5,000 frontline professionals trained on economic abuse and demonstrating improved knowledge.
Legal regulatory and policy change to support victim-survivors and disrupt abusers
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Economic abuse traps survivors while abusers exploit gaps in systems. We will drive legal, regulatory, and policy reforms to protect survivors, including children, and stop abusers.
By 2028, we will have achieved:
Legislative or regulatory reform to protect 750,000 victim-survivors from joint mortgage economic abuse.
Government action to ensure a consistent approach to coerced debt write-off in both the private and public sectors.
Cohabitation law reform to better protect victim-survivors of economic abuse.
A reformed Child Maintenance Service that better safeguards victim-survivors and ensures their children receive the support they are entitled to.
Work with the financial services sector to ensure consistently good practice across the industry
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Abusers weaponise financial products and services to cause economic harm, while victim-survivors do not know what support is available. We will work collaboratively with the industry to build consistent, survivor-centred responses to economic abuse.
By 2028, we will have achieved:
New/adapted products or services that provide consistently good support to survivors and disrupt perpetrators, with at least one firm changing multiple systems and policies at scale.
Credit reference agencies working collaboratively with Surviving Economic Abuse and with creditors to restore victim-survivors’ credit files and scores.
Our work is shaped by economic abuse victim-survivors.
In 2025-2028, we will:
Grow and diversify our victim-survivor engagement, with a particular focus on engaging Black and marginalised women, disabled women, women with children, younger women, and women from different life stages in our work.
Empower victim-survivors to play a more active role within Surviving Economic Abuse at a level that suits their needs.
Sustainability
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If we are to achieve our mission to save lives and stop economic abuse forever, we need to be a sustainable and resilient organisation.
In 2025-2028, we will:
Grow and support our passionate and expert staff team, boosting capacity and supporting team members’ wellbeing and development, creating an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.
Deliver our new EDI strategy, including ensuring our board and staff team better reflect the communities we serve.
Strengthen our systems and processes to better meet the needs of our growing charity, with a focus on data protection, cybersecurity, and AI usage.
Diversify our income streams to help fund our ambitious new strategy and deliver sustainable and resilient organisational growth.
Partnerships
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We know that we can only achieve our goals if we work alongside others – with our colleagues, our partners, and, most importantly, with the victim-survivors who are at the heart of everything we do.
In 2025-2028, we will:
Develop and maintain strategic partnerships to grow our reach and impact.
Work collaboratively and supportively with by-and-for organisations to ensure we reach marginalised victim-survivors.