Spotlight on economic abuse - Good Shepherd Youth & Family ...

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There is a need for greater support and individual advocacy for women around financial issues following domestic violence and there may also be a need for training, information exchange and collaboration between different types of services—including between financial counselling and domestic violence services. It is not clear how well economic abuse is understood and responded to by service providers in different sectors. This is also the case in regard to any collaborations and innovative service models which might be providing effective responses. Financial literacy education and financial capability building have been identified as preventative measures and as responses for women who have experienced violence. There is a need for a better understanding of the appropriate contexts for providing financial literacy education to women experiencing economic abuse, including the potential for ‘mainstream’ community-based education programs to fill this role. vi
Introduction This literature review has been written as the first part of the <strong>Spotlight</strong> on Economic Abuse Project, a joint advocacy initiative of Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service and Kildonan UnitingCare. The project emerged from the organisations’ shared concerns about economic abuse being experienced by women accessing their services. Both Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service and Kildonan UnitingCare provide services to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. These include family violence intervention programs and financial counselling. Both organisations have also been leaders in the development and provision of financial inclusion initiatives such as loans and savings programs for women. Kildonan UnitingCare provides violence prevention and intervention programs for men, women and children including individual and group work responses and men’s behaviour change programs. Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service operates the Mornington Peninsula Family Violence Program which supports women and children experiencing domestic violence and provides other women’s counselling and peer support programs. Workers at both organisations have encountered harrowing stories of economic abuse leading to acquired debt, poverty and homelessness. Economic abuse has often been overlooked in the spectrum of domestic and family violence. In Australia economic abuse has only recently been recognised in some legal jurisdictions and there is a low level of public awareness of it. Combined with some clear evidence of the damaging effects of economic abuse these factors present a strong argument for more to be done to identify and address economic abuse in the Australian context. The <strong>Spotlight</strong> on Economic Abuse Project aims to identify systemic issues of economic abuse to facilitate and guide initiatives within government, corporations and community service sectors for the prevention, early intervention and mitigation of economic abuse. This paper takes the first step in this journey, presenting a review of national and international research literature relating to economic abuse in Australia and identifying key areas of policy and sectors for intervention. It is underpinned by the shared belief of Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service and Kildonan UnitingCare that it is only after we name economic abuse that we can work together to confront and prevent it. By identifying and describing economic abuse, its impacts and the way in which it is perpetuated, we can begin to take action to build collaborative partnerships and develop innovative responses to address abuse. This literature and policy review paper presents a complex picture of an intersecting web of factors and relationships at systemic, political, legal, economic and cultural levels that perpetuate economic abuse. It also draws attention to the need for engagement and cooperation across community, corporate and government sectors to tackle economic abuse. 1
Page 2 and 3: Spotlight on Econo
Page 4 and 5: Contents List of Abbreviations ....
Page 6 and 7: Executive Summary This literature r
Page 8 and 9: legal matters migration matters hea
Page 12 and 13: Overview This paper is organised as
Page 14 and 15: The DV Vic definition informs the u
Page 16 and 17: Case Study: Maria Maria’s husband
Page 18 and 19: Some ‘typical scenarios’ of eco
Page 20 and 21: As part of repeated or ongoing cont
Page 22 and 23: also outside the scope of this pape
Page 24 and 25: Influences, Impacts and Points of I
Page 26 and 27: Particular vulnerabilities to econo
Page 28 and 29: Exploring the impacts of economic a
Page 30 and 31: Impacts relating to child support.
Page 32 and 33: Compared with 1995, people were mor
Page 34 and 35: Public Policies and Practices There
Page 36 and 37: the legal frameworks affecting dome
Page 38 and 39: In addition to family violence poli
Page 40 and 41: Centrelink may seek to recover paym
Page 42 and 43: Services staff providing customer s
Page 44 and 45: perpetrators to be excluded from th
Page 46 and 47: purpose is to “build the capacity
Page 48 and 49: financial literacy strategy. Howeve
Page 50 and 51: or in any other way controls or dom
Page 52 and 53: In its recent review the ALRC ident
Page 54 and 55: and for the creation of a new tempo
Page 56 and 57: equiring assistance or consideratio
Page 58 and 59: establish if there is a need for re
Page 60 and 61:
considered by community sector grou
Page 62 and 63:
Community Services Policies and Pra
Page 64 and 65:
Financial counselling services are
Page 66 and 67:
Conclusion: Community services resp
Page 68 and 69:
—— 2011, Forms of employment, A
Page 70 and 71:
Chappell, D & Di Martino, V 2000, V
Page 72 and 73:
se.unsw.edu.au/Conference%20papers/
Page 74 and 75:
Northern Territory Government 2008,
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VicHealth—see Victorian Health Pr
Page 78 and 79:
ALRC (2011c) recommendations for ch
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