Financial control

Financial/economic abuse is now written directly into UK law. It’s defined as any behaviour with a substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to acquire, use, or maintain money or property, or to obtain goods or services – see section 1(4) of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

It covers a wide range of abuse:

• controlling access to a joint account

• forcing someone to hand over wages

• building up debt in their name

• preventing them from working or

• dictating every purchase down to groceries.

It can also look more subtle. The controlling person may give the person an “allowance” that never quite covers necessities. The person may be made to justify every receipt. The controlling person strips the person’s control of their own money.  

Financial control is often one of the first tactics used. It’s one of the last to be recognised, because money problems in a relationship are so easily dismissed as ordinary disagreements rather than deliberate control. It’s also one of the most effective tools for keeping someone trapped: without independent money, leaving becomes a far harder, riskier decision.