Victims of economic abuse should find it easier to get help dealing with their creditors, as 25 banks and building societies have committed to accepting a new form which could ease applicants’ trauma and provide the support they need.
The Economic Abuse Evidence Form (EAEF) enables money and debt advisers, trained by the specialist charities Money Advice Plus (MAP) and Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), to advise multiple organisations that someone has experienced economic abuse, and explain the impact on the victim.
On average, victims are indebted to at least five different creditors, and they often have to retell their experience to each one, which can be traumatising.
Last year, at least 5.5 million people in the UK experienced economic abuse, according to SEA, which involves a perpetrator controlling their partner’s, or ex-partner’s, money and finances.
Recently, the Guardian and Observer have covered cases of women left with unaffordable mortgages after the departure of controlling partners, and struggling to get help from their banks.
For those like Susan Perasan*, whose ex-husband amassed £58,370 of debt with 27 creditors that she was left to pay off, the form would have been a “godsend”.
“I had to write out 27 different forms for my creditors, explaining why I had got into this mess and why I couldn’t repay them,” she says, adding that it was “horrendous” and humiliating.
“The repayments were like paying my mortgage twice – and that, on top of childcare, was tough,” she says. “For someone to have said ‘here’s a form, fill this in and we’ll send it off to everyone, some might even write it off’ – that would have made such a difference to the kids’ lives when we were skint and living on things like tins of spaghetti.”
The form includes a brief history of the abuse and coercive control, and details about the client’s relationship to the alleged perpetrator and the period over which the abuse took place.
It also outlines the impact on the client’s control over money and includes any relevant supporting evidence the adviser has seen.
In 2017, Perasan paid off her debt, which she says was a “wonderful, wonderful feeling – I felt free”. However, she still has two jobs – as she has since the debt began accruing – to fix some of the 30-year-old problems in her home that she wasn’t able to tackle when she was still paying creditors.
She says tools such as the EAEF are also vital for helping victims realise it is not their fault. “You do feel like it’s your fault, that you’re in debt … because the abuser breaks you down so much.”
So far, 25 banks and building societies have accepted the EAEF, including Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Santander. “I think it’s brilliant banks are on board, but I’d like to go further with anyone issuing credit,” Perasan says.
A pilot programme for the form found that the number of times organisations needed to contact victims for additional information was reduced. Only 15% of requests to victims, or their nominated advisers, supported by an EAEF required additional information, compared with 35% without one.
Fiona Turner, head of vulnerability policy at the banking trade body UK Finance, says: “The journey to financial freedom for victim-survivors of economic abuse can be complex and challenging. Firms accepting the EAEF is positive progress that will simplify the process, reduce the risk of trauma associated with multiple notifications, and enable the victim-survivors to access the support they need. But we know that more still needs to be done.”
*Name has been changed