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

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.
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