Surviving Economic Abuse’s Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Deidre Cartwright runs through her take on the economic abuse commitments and actions within the VAWG strategy and what the government needs to do next.
After sustained campaigning by Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) alongside survivors and cross-sector partners, the government has published its long-awaited Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. For the first time, it includes commitments to tackle economic abuse, including taking action to address joint mortgage abuse, coerced debt and the impact on credit scores, and family court reform.
This is a significant step forward. Over four million UK women experienced economic abuse in the last year. By controlling victim-survivors’ money and economic resources, abusers trap victim-survivors in dangerous situations and prevent them from achieving safety and independence, even long after they have fled. That’s why a VAWG Strategy that prevents and disrupts opportunities for abusers to cause harm through our justice, welfare and financial systems is so vital.
But do these commitments go far enough to end economic abuse and meet the government’s ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade? We dive deeper into the fine print of the government’s commitments to ensure it works to save lives.
Joint mortgage abuse recognised, but survivors need faster action
We have long been calling for government action to tackle joint mortgage economic abuse, which is driving 750,000 victim-survivors in the UK into homelessness and debt. That’s why we strongly welcomed the government’s commitment within its VAWG and Financial Inclusion strategies to work with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and lenders to explore limiting abusers’ misuse of joint financial products, including mortgages.
But “exploring” the issue will not deliver safety for the survivors already drowning in arrears, facing destroyed credit ratings and trapped in joint mortgages with abusers. The FCA’s recent Mortgage Rule Review response recognised that lenders can and should do more under current rules yet support for survivors remains inconsistent. Too often, lenders are reluctant to act, citing the legal risk arising from their obligation to both customers, while survivors continue to face housing and financial insecurity. The FCA also recognised what we have long been calling for: legislative reform is essential to help victim-survivors end a joint mortgage with an abuser quickly and safely.
We are working with victim-survivors and partners across the mortgages industry and legal sector to develop the legislative reforms needed to stop abusers weaponising joint mortgages. The government must support this work by bringing forward the necessary legislative changes and encouraging the FCA to provide clear guidance to lenders on how they can support victim-survivors under current rules. Survivors cannot wait any longer for protection – the government must act to stop abusers from destroying lives.
The VAWG Strategy commits to tackling coerced debt, but survivors need assurance that promises will be turned into action
In the last year alone, one million UK women were coerced into debt by an abusive current or ex-partner. That’s why we are pleased the government has committed to developing a consistent approach to coerced debt across the public and private sectors, set out within the VAWG and the Financial Inclusion strategies.
These commitments include working alongside SEA to update the Economic Abuse Toolkit for public sector bodies, with clear recommendations for tackling coerced debt, and delivering economic abuse training for debt professionals. The government has also committed to piloting the Economic Abuse Evidence Form (EAEF) – a UK Finance-endorsed information-sharing tool, devised by Money Advice Plus and delivered in partnership with SEA, that helps trained debt advisors evidence to a creditor that their customer has experienced economic abuse alongside a request for a debt solution. Additionally, the government has committed to supporting Credit Reference Agencies and the financial services sector to explore credit restoration options for victim-survivors, ensuring that their credit reports accurately reflect their creditworthiness and not the economic abuse.
Given the devastating consequences of coerced debt — including criminalisation, job loss and long-term credit damage — these steps are welcome. However, without clear implementation, accountability and scale, they risk falling short. To deliver real change, the government must now move decisively from promise to practice by embedding these tools across government debt management bodies and working directly with survivors and specialist organisations to drive consistent responses to coerced debt and credit restoration across both the public and private sectors.
The CMS is a playground for domestic abusers – promised legislation must be urgently brought forward, and reforms must go further
Domestic abusers routinely weaponise the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) as a tool of economic abuse, causing harm to survivors and their children long after separation by withholding payments, paying unreliably or hiding income. We welcome the government’s recognition of child maintenance abuse as a form of violence against women and children, particularly its commitment to remove Direct Pay and instead offer the more robust Collect and Pay Service to all CMS users.
We are working alongside survivors and their children to urge the government to bring forward the promised legislation urgently and go further. We need stronger information gathering and enforcement measures to clamp down on abusers hiding their income or dodging non-compliance action. We also need to ensure all survivors can access the CMS by removing all fees to use the service and equip CMS professionals with the specialist training and resources needed to ensure survivors can safely access the CMS. Without further reform, moving all users to Collect and Pay alone will not prevent abusers from continuing to cause harm or lift children out of poverty.
Once-in-a-generation cohabitation law reforms are welcome, but must not be built on a crumbling system for married and civil partners
The government’s commitment to introduce cohabitation rights and protections, including direct consultation on the needs of domestic, including economic, abuse victim-survivors, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for reform. Currently, cohabiting victim-survivors are left with no safe route to separation, often forced to abandon their money and homes or trigger repossession as the only way to free themselves from a joint mortgage with the abuser.
However, simply extending rights from the marriage and civil partnership system that abusers are known to manipulate risks replicating harm for cohabiting survivors. We need a system that works for all women, regardless of whether they hold a marriage certificate or not. Furthermore, despite Baroness Levitt’s commitment to review divorce and financial proceedings alongside introducing cohabitation law reforms, this was notably missing from the VAWG Strategy.
For survivors to rebuild their lives, they must be able to separate their money and assets from an abusive ex-partner safely. The government must therefore clarify how a review of divorce and financial remedies will be undertaken alongside cohabitation reforms and ensure that all proposed reforms are grounded in victim-survivors’ lived experiences through direct consultation with survivors and specialist services like SEA.
If access to banking services for “underserved groups” doesn’t support migrant victim-survivors, then it simply won’t work
We welcome the government’s VAWG and Financial Inclusion strategies’ commitments to ensure underserved individuals, such as economic abuse victim-survivors, can benefit from programmes, like the No Fixed Abode Scheme, that help them access banking, even without traditional ID or proof of address. But these measures don’t go far enough. Migrant survivors report perpetrators using their immigration status to control access to bank accounts and financial services. Current legislation and guidance prevent some migrant survivors from even opening a safe, independent bank account while they regularise their immigration status.
We were disappointed that No Recourse to Public Funds was not scrapped for migrant survivors fleeing abuse, and that the Migrant Victim Scheme is still too short-term and does not provide roots for applying for leave to remain for certain groups. Furthermore, requiring police to ask migrant victim-survivors for their consent before sharing their information with immigration enforcement does not guarantee protection for those seeking safety.
The government must back its recognition that migrant women are vulnerable with tangible measures to support them. This must include introducing a firewall, grounded in migrant survivors’ lived experiences, between immigration and statutory services and measures to ensure all survivors can access the public funds and independent bank accounts they need to safely leave a dangerous abuser and rebuild their lives.
Raising public awareness of abuse and tackling the attitudes which underpin it is crucial, but long-term sustainable funding will be required to end VAWG
We agree with the government, that to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, we must tackle the behaviours and attitudes behind all forms of VAWG, including economic abuse, and increase public awareness and trust in support services. As a result, we expect reports of VAWG to increase before we see a decrease in actual occurrences. We therefore welcome the commitment to review commissioning so that support better meets victim-survivors’ needs. This must include their economic needs.
However, as the Domestic Abuse Commissioner pointed out, with no commitment in the strategy for long-term sustainable funding for lifesaving specialist domestic abuse services, many survivors will be left without the support they need. How can we increase survivors’ trust in services that simply can’t answer their calls, provide a refuge space or keep their doors open?
The government must urgently guarantee long-term sustainable funding for specialist domestic abuse services with ringfenced funding for specialist ‘by and for’ services so survivors in need of life-saving support today can access it when they reach out for help. We also want to see the government’s commissioning review to recognise that economic safety is key to physical safety and introduce a statutory duty to commission community-based services, including economic advocacy support.
We need accountability, clear timelines and measurable impact
We welcome the government’s promises to tackle economic abuse and stop abusers from weaponising our welfare, justice, and financial systems. But survivors and their children need more than promises. We need accountability, clear timelines, and measurable impact, delivered alongside survivors and specialist organisations. This strategy has the potential to be life-changing for victim-survivors and their families. We stand ready to work with the government to ensure these commitments deliver real safety, security and freedom for victim-survivors and help achieve the mission to halve VAWG in a decade.
Want to understand more about the VAWG strategy and what it means for the response to economic abuse?
In this webinar Surviving Economic Abuse will talk about what is in the VAWG strategy and if it goes far enough to transform responses for victim-survivors of economic abuse. Find out more and register here.
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