When money becomes a weapon

Kimberley Dondo   00:05-00:24
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Money Talks podcast, in partnership with Royal London. Today we’re talking about economic abuse and what happens when money becomes a weapon. I’m joined again by Shelley Read. So Shelley, could you give us an introduction into yourself for those who may not know you at this point? I don't know how.

Shelley Read   00:25-01:10
Thanks, Kimberley. Yes, well, I'm delighted to be back here again. For those who don't know me, I'm Shelley Read. I'm Senior Protection Technical Manager here at Royal London. And throughout my almost 20 years now working in protection, I've always had a real interest in how we identify and treat vulnerable customers, even more so probably since the implementation of Consumer Duty. But this work recently has brought my attention to the really significant and growing issue in the UK and globally of economic abuse, particularly against women. And I'm mindful that this is a really tricky subject, but it is really, really important.

Kimberley Dondo   01:11-01:22
So you have said that you have an affinity or you're drawn to this particular type of work. So how did you become involved in this work?

Shelley Read   01:23-01:23
About 12 months ago, I did a presentation alongside Lauren Garrett, from the Surviving Economic Abuse charity, and I was absolutely blown away by the response.
And I have been ever since, I've talked quite a lot in webinars and at platform events about this rising issue of economic abuse and how it affects us in financial services. And I'm just surprised at how many people always come up afterwards to say, either that they're going through this, or they know someone is going through this or they have a customer that's going through this. So, it has been quite startling the response, and it makes me want to continue researching and looking with a protection hat on how we don't make it easier for an abuser to use protection products.

Kimberley Dondo   02:24-02:34
So we often hear about economic abuse and financial abuse. So, what is the difference if there is a difference?

Shelley Read   02:35-04:56
Yeah, there most definitely is a difference. So economic abuse and financial abuse are a recognised form of domestic abuse and it really is when one person controls or restricts access to money, finances, resource and just basic economic independence. So it can include controlling finances, but also employment, transport, utilities, even food and housing. And I think the best way is just to give you just a quick example of what we see as financial abuse and economic abuse.

So financial abuse. I always think of an example from Surviving Economic Abuse charity, where a young woman had actually said that her partner took every penny of her salary. And if she asked for money for lunch at work, because quite often, the group at work would go out for some lunch on a Friday, that her partner would give her £3 for a Tesco meal deal. So, she constantly had to make excuses and therefore people stopped asking her to go out and it really increased that isolation at work. And that's an example of real financial abuse where it's money that's concerned.

But I think when we're looking at economic abuse that, as I said, can include all sorts of other areas. I think an example of this was a young lady who said that her partner did deliberate damage within minutes of her graduation ceremony, which he in fact had refused to go to. And he called her to say that he had crashed her car because he was so angry that her employer had not only sponsored her education, but had also given her access to a company car. This lady said she was instantly reduced to tears in front of her classmates and she ended up having to borrow money to repair the car because she was under the threat of her partner telling work that she had given him permission to use the car when he didn't have that insurance. So, you can see it is all about control and it's not just about actual day-to-day money.

Kimberley Dondo   04:57-05:14
Those are two very scary situations. And you're telling us that some groups of women are at greater risk of all sorts of domestic abuse, including economic. Can you tell us a little more?

Shelley Read   05:15-10:14
Yeah, of course. And I think when we're listening to this podcast today we're not expecting advisers and people in Financial Services to be experts in this field. What we're just saying is that we know it's such a fast growing issue that it's really good to be vigilant and to be able to look out for these signs. And as part of that, I think it's good to know that there are increased groups at risk of this sort of exploitation.

So disabled women, for example and when I talk about disabled or someone who's incapacitated, it can often mean that they are dependent on a partner or a carer for daily needs. And that makes it easier for someone to abuse the situation and makes it very restrictive for a victim. But we see here that abusers can control things like benefits, even medication and medical aids. And importantly, for someone who has mobility issues, they can also control transport.

Other areas may be women of colour. We hear often that there might be a cultural stigma or community pressure not to speak up. Even sadly a distrust of authorities so that some types of abuse aren't reported. And when we're talking about that, maybe also looking at immigration status, we hear here that this can be a tool of control. So things like threat of deportation or withholding of documents can be a real control here. And also, language barriers, it can be hard to seek help if you have difficulty explaining the situation.

The LGBTQ group as well, similar tactics here, using threat of outing to maybe family, friends, work or senior management at work. And we hear a lot from this group that that fear again of rejection that they might have already gone through once can just further cement that abuse. But here control of access to money, work, education, and maybe even through creating debt, which we will probably come on to in a minute, I think.

The other areas that I would just mention are women that are on a low income or financially dependent. And we often think here about maybe young mums. We know from recent research that 27%, so more than ¼ of UK mums with children under 18 have experienced economic or domestic abuse over the past year. And that's really a huge amount of children that are living in the shadow of economic abuse.

It might be that those on a low income have limited access to employment or maybe limited access to housing so that increases vulnerability. But let's not forget older women. They may be financially dependent due to retirement or part-time work even. And I think it's important to say here with this group, it's not just a spouse or partner that can be exploiting. It can be adult children or even a carer. And particularly with this area, older women might be in that area where advisers are talking about equity release. I think it's so important here to be really mindful of any red flags to show that someone is being maybe coerced into this.

And the final thing I'll say, Kimberley, that the fastest growing group of women particularly who are experiencing this type of control is between the age of 18 and 24. That's quite startling, isn't it? Why is this? It might be because they are for the first time away from home, maybe away from their parents and support network. They might be studying or moving for their first job. It could also be that they're in early new relationships without that experience that might help them. And again, we have seen here in reports that one of the phrases that's used quite a lot is that this is what an adult relationship looks like, where one person takes control of the finances. And that might be the same in many households, but not when it's done in sort of a malicious, controlling, coercive way.

Kimberley Dondo   10:15-10:27
And we have predominantly been focusing on women, but I'm assuming women aren't the only people that face this type of abuse.

Shelley Read   10:28-10:59
No, not at all. And it's a good point to make, Kimberley, because we do often talk about women. We often talk about women and females because they are much more likely to be in this controlled situation than men. But please don't think men don't experience this. We've seen examples of men who have been controlled financially and experienced this type of domestic abuse.

Kimberley Dondo   11:00-11:16
I think it goes across the board, if you're a vulnerable person, you're a vulnerable person. And economic abuse is often linked to financial control. How does this affect financial planning and financial products such as mortgages, for example?

Shelley Read   11:17-14:47
Yeah, absolutely. So, when we're talking about economic abuse and mortgages, we often start to think about coercion into taking out a mortgage or a debt, or indeed coercion into borrowing more on a mortgage. And sadly, we do see examples of forging signatures and misrepresenting information.

My very best friend, she was clearly in a very controlling relationship. Sadly, her husband passed away about 10 years. But even now, and many victims do say that, that when they've been in a relationship, it does carry on and on, even when they're no longer in that family home. But she's just looking to sell the principal main family residence and has found out that there's a really large secure debt attached to it that she had no idea about. So that is often a real key thing that signatures are forged and maybe people don't even know about a debt that's in their name.

Surviving Economic Abuse did an amazing sort of report and research that said locked into my mortgage but locked out of my home. And sadly, that's the case, keeping up with mortgage payments is used often by abusers as a threatening mechanism that you'll have bad debt, you're never going to get a property again, you won't even be able to rent somewhere. So, we do find that some people actually can't get access to their family home, but through fear, they are, locked into that mortgage and continue with making those payments. So, using the home and mortgage as a threat is sadly something that is quite prevalent in that in that mortgage space. I think with a with a protection hat on, again, it's coercion in taking out or indeed altering a policy and denying access to a policy when someone could in fact be able to make a claim such as income protection, for example.

So, I think advisers particularly need to be very alert to someone cancelling a policy or altering a policy without every party been in agreement to that or proving that they are okay for that to go ahead. And I think on the protection space particularly, we're very mindful, and there's lots of work being done across protection providers and also the ABI to try to make it easier when a relationship comes to an end. Now that might not even be an abusive relationship, maybe just a separation or divorce to make separating policies easier.

I mean, my own opinion is that maybe single plans, single policies are the way to go, not just single policies, but singularly owned as well. So, you have your own policy. No one can cancel it. And indeed, if you do need to leave a relationship, you haven't got the difficulties that maybe sometimes particularly older protection policies can prove to be difficult.

Kimberley Dondo   14:48-14:57
Yeah. And what should our listeners look out for, not just at work, but within their friendship groups or their families?

Shelley Read   14:58-17:12
Yeah, I think there are a few key things that could be shown as an area for concern. So maybe someone not having enough money or asking to borrow when clearly their sort of job and financial situation shouldn't merit them having to do that. That can be a trigger for someone to have some concerns.

Maybe joint finances, salary or benefits paid into a partner's account, or indeed seemingly no access to a joint account. I mean, this is really, really important. Even when we look at recruitment now within Royal London, if someone is coming to join us, but give someone else's bank details for the salary to be paid into, we do just sort of ask if they, if they maybe need any support or if they're happy with that situation.

And maybe always using cash or seeking a partner's permission, that can also be a red flag. As can maybe someone changing their plans. So, wanting to leave work or wanting to get a job, which has been a lot different to how they had been previously.

And also, things like not socialising or a change in their appearance can also be a trigger to show that maybe something is going on. And also, we know the situation we're in currently, but we thought maybe we were coming out of the cost-of-living crisis. Global situations suggest that maybe that's not the case and I think abusers might take advantage of the cost-of-living crisis. And I know for advisers, in particularly or anyone in the financial services industry, it can be very difficult to ask those questions. But just looking for these red flags, I think will come on to in a little while, maybe some of the things that advisers or anyone in the financial services world can do if they suspect this type of control.

Kimberley Dondo   17:13-17:26
So as you said, what should someone do whether they're an adviser, if they suspect this is what is happening and someone is under this type of control?

Shelley Read   17:27-19:17
Yeah, I think it's really important to express concern for someone to admit this. It can be really huge for them. You might be the first person that they've talked to about this. But I think it's important maybe not to ask too many questions, but to let them know that you believe them is important and also that help is available. So, taking time just to listen and also to recognise however frustrating it might be that this victim might not want to act immediately or they might want to take time to act. And I think having information about domestic abuse support to hand is really important and encouraging someone to contact a helpline or online support.

Some advisers that we've spoken said that when they talked to someone about the situation they were in that, even offering to be with them when they made the call, was a huge support for them. But I think providing training for staff, whatever the business is, to be able to recognise that something might not be quite right and there might be some abuse or control going on.

But above all, I think signposting for further information. And maybe if you do suspect something, it's maybe not a good idea to outright just say that they think that they are a victim of abuse or they're experiencing economic or financial abuse, but maybe positioning it something like ‘how do you feel about your access to the family income?’ might be a way to get someone to start discussing this.

Kimberley Dondo   19:18-19:23
Yeah, just to lighten it without instantly making it feel super heavy. But thank you so much for speaking with me today, Shelley. This is a very important discussion and I'm sure our audience will definitely take everything on board.

Shelley Read   19:24-19:36
You're welcome. Thanks very much, Kimberley.