Despite agreement across key stakeholders as to its widespread nature, economic abuse is not thought to be well understood in New Zealand.

There is a lack of common understanding or information, leading in turn to a lack of community and cross-sector awareness; and a lack of pre-or post-intervention frameworks to address economic abuse systematically.

Neither is the impact of economic abuse, including erosion of confidence and its implications on long-term financial, emotional and children’s wellbeing, thought to be understood.

Economic abuse is seen as an emerging but as yet largely unaddressed form of abuse in New Zealand. It is slowly gaining visibility following a greater emphasis on and understanding of family violence, in which cross-government work has raised awareness and improved responses.

Participants identified a number of interpersonal and structural factors that contribute to a lack of awareness of economic abuse, and complicate effective responses:

• The taboo nature of discussing both money matters and domestic violence: it is difficult for women to speak of either their financial experiences or experiences of domestic violence when there is a culture of silence on these topics.
• Patriarchal and cultural systems and expectations: including cultural norms and beliefs that looking after money is a male responsibility as the “head of the house,” while women look after children from pregnancy through to adulthood and beyond.
• Financial systems: a culture of ‘easy credit’ and its availability, and male partners doing ‘cash jobs’ to avoid financial childrearing responsibilities.
• Inadequate legal and other reforms: Women experiencing economic abuse have not benefitted from previous reforms to legal and government agency systems. In some cases, refuge or other family violence staff, such as financial mentors, workers in Work and Income, and some emerging practice responses by some banks were cited as good examples of workers who could identify economic abuse and attempt to respond.

However, participants felt the lack of awareness across all sectors led to a fragmented and frustrating response, which in many cases worsened the financial and social challenges of those impacted by economic abuse. 

“Although community family violence services have a better level of understanding to help people recognise that economic abuse may be happening, we are not always sure what to do with the information to assist the woman to redress the problem.”
– Research participant

Research participants named specific and extensive interpersonal and structural gaps in responding to the problem.

Of importance is that at all stages of intervention, the onus is on the woman to prove that economic abuse is occurring; and this in itself provides a challenge.

Economic abuse is intended to limit financial and other forms of agency, while navigating a fractured system also creates emotional, physical and financial drain.

Most often the evidence, or the resourcing to obtain it, is not generally or readily available to women.

A lack of clear definition, effective legislation and coordination across sectors has resulted in poor identification, protections and redress. In some cases, legislation can exacerbate the problem.

Specifically, changes to the family justice system mean women are often facing their abusers in court without proper legal representation.

Perpetrators can also use the court system to continue to inflict economic abuse on ex-partners through protracted legal proceedings.

Victims of economic abuse are subject to a range of negative outcomes. These can include poverty; debt, including debt that is itself a form of economic abuse and debt accrued from predatory lenders in order to make ends meet; homelessness; reduced employment or interrupted employment; difficulty in caring for or maintaining custody of children; and reduced access to mainstream financial resources.

Unlike other forms of IPV, economic abuse can continue long after the relationship has ended.

The negative outcomes for mothers and children can reach across the entire lifespan.