DIFF podcast: Invisible Differences – How to recognise economic abuse and what to do about it

Host Bharat Sagar was joined by Andrew Calder, strategic partnership and propositions manager at Accord Mortgages, and Claire Towe, co-founder of Meet Margo.

Trigger warning: this article discusses economic and other forms of abuse

Defining economic abuse

Calder described economic abuse as “a form of controlling or coercive behaviour where someone’s access to money, financial independence or resources is restricted or manipulated.” He noted that it is “recognised as a distinct form of domestic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021” and that over 4.2 million women have experienced economic abuse in the past year, with approximately 750,000 women having experienced economic abuse within joint mortgages.

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Former Prime Minister Keir Starmer described economic abuse as a “national emergency”, Calder said, and the financial services sector was “particularly well-placed” to make a difference.

This type of abuse often presents in three distinct ways, the first of which is restriction, which Calder noted “is limiting access to money or financial tools”, giving the examples of changing bank account passwords and taking control of bank cards. There is also exploitation, which involves “using someone’s finances for personal gain”, such as building debts in the victim-survivor’s name to buy things for the perpetrator. Thirdly, there is sabotage, which Calder noted is “actively undermining financial stability”, such as “refusing to cooperate with shared financial obligations”.

Calder added that “these things rarely show up in isolation; it’s usually a combination of one or more of the above, and it can be everyday actions that escalate”.

He suggested that one partner “controlling all bank accounts might be something that’s quite normal, [it] may be just the way that household’s run” but said this kind of situation can “escalate into something that isn’t okay”.

Calder said even something as seemingly simple as deliberately breaking a pair of glasses could mean a victim-survivor was unable to go to work, communicate with friends and family, deal with banking and generally experience the world around them. Towe agreed, saying it may seem like a fairly innocuous act if presented to the police, but it was representative of much wider and more serious consequences.

Economic abuse case study

Meet Margo helps women with homeownership while navigating things that impact their financial resilience, such as the gender pay gap, career breaks and living longer with less in their pension pots.

After being approached by a number of women whose cases involved economic abuse, the firm reached out to Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) in 2024, which Towe noted was “one of the UK’s only charities who are raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming the way we respond to it”. She said this decision was partly due to feeling dissatisfied with how the firm was able to support those experiencing economic abuse.

Towe described a recent case that her firm dealt with involving a victim-survivor, referred to as Jenny for the purposes of anonymity. The perpetrator of the abuse had told Jenny he was going to “financially ruin” her and refused to remortgage the property. Towe said this was a common form of abuse because remortgaging a jointly held property requires the signatures of both parties.

Jenny disclosed her experience of economic abuse to Meet Margo, saying she wanted to buy out her ex-partner, but he refused to sell his part of the property. She was forced to get a consent order through the courts, but “it’s a long, drawn-out process, and it’s very expensive”. By the time the consent was given and Jenny returned to Meet Margo, “her situation had got worse”, with the ex-partner having evicted Jenny and her two children.

She was forced to move into rented accommodation, and to avoid her credit being impacted, she continued paying her share of the mortgage payments – a situation Towe described as unsustainable, resulting in Jenny eventually falling into arrears, “not because she was being irresponsible, but because somebody was economically abusing her”.

When the economic abuse team could not access Jenny’s notes from the debt collections team, she had to retell her story multiple times. Jenny’s sister eventually reached out to Meet Margo, highlighting the emotional toll that repeatedly recounting her experience was having on Jenny and asked if there was any support that could be offered to her. Towe stated that “we were able to advocate for her and to be able to be that voice”, and Jenny was ultimately able to get her remortgage with the perpetrator removed.

However, Towe did note that “even with the court orders, even with solicitor’s letters, all of the evidence that economic abuse was at play, we did really struggle to get Jenny a new mortgage”. Ultimately, Jenny only had the option of one lender for her remortgage, highlighting the constraints that victim-survivors encounter, “even in light of these specialist teams being in place”.

The lender response

Calder explained the difficulties that cases of economic abuse can also present for lenders, saying that “as an industry, what we need to probably grapple with is that there are going to be situations like this that don’t fit into those neat moulds that we want them to” because of standardised underwriting and lenders often favouring a “quick no”. He said it was the industry’s responsibility “to try and support customers like Jenny as best that we can,” as this was “something that we all need to work on”.

Towe said some lenders required a full application to be declined before considering an appeal, which can mean “a hard search without any further damage to their credit report, without any certainty that there’s going to be a different outcome”. She mentioned the possibility of the specialist lending route but added that this implies higher rates, “meaning the victim-survivor is going to be paying more”.

Calder emphasised how important it was to have “awareness of this problem within the lender community” and that intermediaries “having an understanding of what economic abuse looks like could prove really critical”.

Looking ahead

When Sagar asked whether artificial intelligence (AI) could ameliorate the process for both victim-survivors and the industry, Calder said he regarded client communication as a “high-value task” and therefore would not advocate for the use of AI in situations of economic abuse, adding that each case was so nuanced. Although he said it could help with checking correlating information, “it can’t replace the responsibility that we have as lenders in terms of looking after clients”.

Towe said AI could “help brokers and remove the barriers for customers asking for help” but agreed that it could not “replace that empathy and human trust that’s needed when it comes to these cases”.

She went on to discuss the recent government investigation into cohabitation and, as part of that, economic and domestic forms of abuse, saying: “The fact that they’re even looking at that shows how much they’re trying to transform the way we respond.” She also mentioned the value of SEA’s resources for firms that want to improve their response to economic abuse cases, saying it was “doing so much work in this space that’s specifically tailored to financial services”.

In Sagar’s closing comments, he noted the importance of highlighting the prevalence of economic abuse, concluding: “Every event you do, this should be part of one of the subject matters of the things that you should be discussing.”

Calder recommended the following resources for professionals in financial services:

Listen to the full podcast in the video below, hosted by Bharat Sagar, ambassador at AE3 Media, with guests Andrew Calder, strategic partnership and propositions manager at Accord Mortgages, and Claire Towe, co-founder of Meet Margo.