Spotlight on Economic Abuse: a Literature and Policy Review

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Impacts relating to child support. Adequacy of child support payments is a concern for some women. Avoidance of child support payments by abusive partners continues economic abuse while also contributing to poor financial outcomes (Corrie 2011). Women may also choose not to pursue child support or receive less than child support than they should to avoid further violence (Patrick, Cook & McKenzie 2008; Patrick, Cook & Taket 2007). Impacts relating to legal matters. Legal costs may relate to protection orders, family law matters involving children and property settlements, wills, victim compensation, bankruptcy and legal action relating to jointly owned business. Costs include legal fees, lost work days, child care and costs of court-appointed specialists (see also Lyons 2000). For the women in Braaf and Barrett Meyering’s (2011) study, legal issues were “pivotal” to women’s financial outcomes with positive legal actions also bringing intangible benefits relating to the acknowledgement of women’s experiences and making ex-partners accountable for behaviour. On the downside, legal processes could cause stress and hardship. Another extremely serious impact relating to legal matters is the possibility of women’s criminalisation through economic abuse. For example, economic abuse may involve coercion by a partner to defraud Centrelink or a woman destitute as a result of economic abuse may commit a criminal offence to survive (ALRC/NSWLRC 2010; Gilfus 2002). Impacts relating to migration matters. Women who are migrants to Australia on spousal visas may have no or extremely limited access to income support payments or ability to enter paid work if they leave an abusive partner (Pham 2011). Impacts relating to health In addition to any health impacts resulting from the experience of violence, economic abuse may affect physical and psychological health through poverty and low income and the stress associated with this. These impacts are likely to interact with a whole range of other impacts where economic abuse occurs as one of several forms of violence. Economic impacts on women are also likely to be impacts on their children and women who seek assistance for family violence are often mothers with children. For example, in Victoria in 2010-2011, more than half of the women seeking assistance for family violence through a specialist family violence court had children in their care (State of Victoria 2012b, p. 19). There is a growing body of research concerning the ways in which family violence affects children and recent reviews of the literature point to significant negative behavioural and emotional impacts of intimate partner domestic violence on children (ADFVC 2011; Holt Buckley & Whelan 2008). While some impacts of economic abuse are noted above there is less information about how this form of abuse affects children. However, it is known that domestic violence is a factor in youth homelessness—as shown in national homelessness data collections (AIHW 2011)—and the National Youth Commission (2011) cites a longitudinal study of homeless young people aged 12 to 20 years which found one third had left home because of family violence. As Braaf and Barrett Meyering (2011) point out, another consequence of economic abuse is that it can be a means by which men continue to control their partners’ lives after separation. Some debts may continue to accrue after separation and other debts may continue to arise in the immediate period following separation such as mortgage repayments on joint properties. As well as leaving abusive relationships with a poor credit rating and outstanding debts, economic abuse may result in women being inexperienced and lacking confidence in dealing with financial matters (Evans 2007; VonDeLinde & Correia 2005). Adams (2011, p. 20
3) suggests the impacts of economic abuse are in three dimensions of women’s financial lives: Financial stability, which requires having “not only income to cover daily living expenses, but also assets available to leverage in times of hardship, meet financial goals, and build long-term security” (including finding and maintaining affordable housing). Economic self-sufficiency, which Adams sees as being dependent on employment and which is defined as having the income necessary to meet basic needs (for example, food, housing, child care, health care, transportation, taxes). Subjective financial wellbeing whereby women believe they are able to provide for their families away from their ex-partner, with this affecting the decision not to return to an abusive relationship. Relevant to all three of these dimensions, Sanders and Shnebel (2007, p. 49) note that domestic violence in whatever form: consumes a woman’s time and energy and damages self-confidence and ability to focus on long and short-term goals, all of which are essential for successful transition from economic dependency to building economic resources of her own. In a circular relationship the ongoing experience of low income or poverty may prevent women accessing the support they need and can result women feeling that the financial implications of the relationship are operating as a continuation of the abuse. This example from research conducted by Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service illustrates just one of the ways in which economic abuse can undermine women: For Emma, her ex-partner’s controlling behaviour meant she was not able to purchase anything for herself, even basic items such as underwear. It takes a lot for her to spend any money on herself now as she still fears that she is doing something wrong. She also puts a considerable amount of pressure on herself and becomes immobilised for fear of consequences. (Corrie 2011) Awareness of economic abuse Economic abuse as a form of domestic violence has been the subject of considerable policy attention and a focus for some activists, academics and community organisations in recent years. At the same time public awareness and understanding of the issues is poor and there is also evidence that awareness of economic abuse in some key institutions lags behind that which would be required to achieve significant positive action to address the problem. Responses to a 2009 national survey of community attitudes to violence against women commissioned by the Australian Government show that since an earlier survey in 1995 awareness of domestic violence as a serious issue has increased and perceptions of what constitutes domestic violence have broadened (VicHealth 2010, McGregor 2009). However, they also show that recognition of non-physical behaviours—including economic abuse—as forms of domestic violence remains low. Some of the relevant findings from the survey include: The vast majority of the community (97 per cent of respondents) agreed that physical and sexual assault, and threats, constituted domestic violence in 2009. 21
Page 1 and 2: Spotlight on econo
Page 3 and 4: This literature review is written a
Page 5 and 6: List of Abbreviations Australian Bu
Page 7 and 8: Influences, impacts and points of i
Page 9 and 10: Currently, there are a number of ga
Page 11 and 12: Introduction This literature review
Page 13 and 14: Economic Abuse This section is conc
Page 15 and 16: elationships; sibling relationships
Page 17 and 18: A.2 Preventing acquisition of econo
Page 19 and 20: Diagram 1: Power and Control Wheel
Page 21 and 22: Economic abuse and elder abuse Econ
Page 23 and 24: studies, which concern different gr
Page 25 and 26: Figure 1: An ecological model of ec
Page 27 and 28: also parents and children and paid
Page 29: A recent qualitative study by the A
Page 33 and 34: The connections between policies, f
Page 35 and 36: The establishment of a National Cou
Page 37 and 38: the Victorian Government commenced
Page 39 and 40: insufficient to meet costs for wome
Page 41 and 42: welfare payment and to encourage so
Page 43 and 44: The ALRC recommended a host of chan
Page 45 and 46: exclusion. In addition to increasin
Page 47 and 48: Conclusion: public policies and eco
Page 49 and 50: Legal and Regulatory Frameworks Aus
Page 51 and 52: a. DEEWR and Job Services Australia
Page 53 and 54: provide guidance materials for supe
Page 55 and 56: laws and a variety of other ‘soft
Page 57 and 58: for hardship, although as with the
Page 59 and 60: Employment Frameworks, Policies and
Page 61 and 62: Other initiatives that rely on enga
Page 63 and 64: Australian context where a strong f
Page 65 and 66: Financial education and asset build
Page 67 and 68: List of References Aboriginal Affai
Page 69 and 70: Banks, M 2011, Caught short: explor
Page 71 and 72: Dimopoulos, M 2010, Implementing le
Page 73 and 74: McCrystal, S & Smith, B 2011, 'Indu
Page 75 and 76: Sanders, CK & Schnabel, M 2007, 'Or
Page 77 and 78: Appendices APPENDIX A: Key policy d
Page 79: APPENDIX B: Economic abuse in the V

Spotlight on Economic Abuse: a Literature and Policy Review

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