International Economic Abuse Awareness Day was founded by the Canadian Centre For Womens Empowerment https://ccfwe.org/ in 2019 to raise awareness of Economic Abuse and assist vicitms. I was invited to join the International Coalition in 2022 https://againsteconomicabuse.org/
The Domestic Violence Act recognises Economic Abuse as a form of domestic violence and it often occurs in the context of domestic relationships, past and present. It involves controlling a partner or ex-partner’s money or access to money that causes dependence and limits their agency.
He who controls the money controls you!
Economic Abuse is one of the behaviours of coercive controlling behaviour and money is the tool used to cause harm.
Economic Abuse is often disguised and normalised in social gender norms of men being providers and heads of households and they make most of the financial decisions. Men earn more than women, and women give up careers or take sabbaticals from their careers to become caregivers and homemakers, which creates immediate vulnerability and dependence and long into the future.
Having a child with a controller places a victim at even greater risk as the child becomes the glue that binds her to the controller. A vicitm can't move provinces never mind relocating to another country or returning to their country of birth if you have a child with the controller, held hostage by the controller and forced to have some kind of a relationship with him due to co-parenting. Many demand their right to co-parent yet purposefully neglect their financial responsibility towards their children.
An international scale of economic abuse was developed to measure abusive behaviours which include control, exploitation, and sabotage, for example;
●he may discourage or prevent her from working,
●harass and disrupt her at work,
●purposely ruin her credit score,
●demand to know how money was spent,
●spend money that was designated for bills, or
●make important financial decisions without seeking input from his partner.
The scale should be included in protection orders, divorces, maintenance and children’s court to establish risk and identify abusive behaviour so that victims are afforded the appropriate protection.
Women who are forced to become economically dependent on their partner are at greater risk of being further abused and are less likely to leave the relationship. The early research focuses mainly on marriages however, we have more people that cohabit, and we have more children born outside of marriage in South Africa and more research is required to better understand the behaviour, strategies and impacts of economic abuse.
The research shows us that physical abuse is not the most prevalent form of domestic violence and often only happens much later; emotional, psychological, and economic abuse are more prevalent and pervasive as they are strategically done to create emotional and financial dependence. Dependence affords the controller greater control.
The research also shows us that when victims leave an abusive relationship, access to finances is immediately severed, and access becomes conditional. If you have a protection order or applied for one they will coerce you into withdrawing it in return for maintenance or a divorce settlement. The most prevalent form of financial and economic abuse post-relationship is using child support to continue punishing the victim despite the harm caused to minor children.
This abusive behaviour puts children at great risk and vulnerable to other abusive situations that include further abuse, shelter, food and educational poverty, maintenance and maintenance recovery should be prioritised to protect victims and their children.
The Department of Justice signed an MOU to blacklist maintenance defaulters to much fanfare which will not significantly deter an abuser yet are silent on how they will economically and financially protect vulnerable women and children. If only they had the same enthusiasm for victims and their children and upholding their Constitutional Rights such as;
Access to Justice,
Rights of Children,
Freedoms and Security of Persons,
Right to Human Dignity and
The Right to Equality.
Economic abuse perpetuates gender inequality and keeps vulnerable people trapped in poverty.
buse
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