VAW0016

Written evidence submitted by Surviving Economic (SEA) (VAW0016)

Introduction and summary

1. Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is the only charity in the UK dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming responses to it. All our work is informed by Experts by Experience – a group of women who speak about what they have gone through so that they can be a force for change. Our response to this inquiry focuses specifically on our area of expertise, economic abuse as a form of controlling or coercive behaviour across the continuum of against women and girls (VAWG), and draws broadly from our recent response to the government consultation on the VAWG Strategy 2021-2024.

2. In SEA’s response to the government consultation, we echoed the concerns shared with the government collectively by the VAWG sector on the fragmentation that will be created by separating out strategies on VAWG and domestic abuse. The need for a coordinated approach has never been more important. SEA research (Sharp-Jeffs & Learmonth, 2017; SEA, 2020a) has shown that the majority of women experiencing domestic abuse will also be subjected to economic abuse as part of the pattern of controlling or coercive behaviour and the economic uncertainty and measures taken to control the pandemic has provided a conducive context for this. SEA’s recent report, The Cost of Covid-19: Economic abuse throughout the pandemic, highlights the adverse impacts on victims across several areas including and education, housing and accommodation, finances, access to welfare benefits and child maintenance. (SEA, 2021a)

3. SEA welcomes the enactment of the , which saw significant progress in relation to addressing economic abuse, in particular, the inclusion of economic abuse within the statutory definition of domestic abuse, and the extension of the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour to post-separation abuse. However, SEA along with others in the sector is disappointed that the Act has not gone as far as it could to address economic abuse across the spectrum of and girls. We are especially disappointed that it fails to provide adequate protection for migrant women by lifting the condition of No Recourse to Public Funds, which prevents certain categories of women with insecure immigration status from accessing support when experiencing domestic abuse.

4. For reasons set out in the body of this submission, SEA recommends that:

i. Women's economic safety is considered at the heart of an integrated approach to tackling VAWG.

ii. The government should avoid policies which inadvertently facilitate economic abuse and promote those that support women’s economic independence and stability. Government policies, in particular those relating to social security and child maintenance, should be vetted through the lens of gender equality and impact on victims of VAWG before being introduced or changed. VAW0016

iii. Domestic abuse survivors should be exempt from the operation of the legal aid means test.

iv. Migrant victims of domestic abuse must be provided equal protection with other survivors. In order to achieve this: v. The No Recourse to Public Funds condition must be removed for all survivors of domestic abuse vi. The Destitution Concession must be extended to all survivors regardless of immigration status vii. The time period of the Concession must be extended to at least six months viii. Separate payments should be made as a default in the case of joint claims for Universal Credit.

ix. Paid employment leave should be provided for domestic abuse survivors.

x. Greater attention needs to be paid to providing compensation or reparation for economic harm/loss caused by domestic abuse, exploring the use of laws such as the Proceeds of Crime Act.

xi. Debt and benefits advice should be embedded within specialist domestic abuse services.

xii. Programmes relating to prevention and perpetrators must explicitly recognise economic abuse and its links to coercive control, and tackle the behaviours of male entitlement legitimised by the notion of ‘provider’. xiii. Approaches to addressing VAWG should include non-traditional stakeholders such as banks and other financial institutions, and the possibility of leveraging these partnerships across other forms of VAWG should be explored. xiv. Alongside improvements within the criminal justice system, other areas such as regulatory law, professional conduct and fitness to practise that work beyond and in conjunction with criminal justice should be utilised to make abusers accountable.

How VAWG affects women and girls

5. The Istanbul Convention recognises that ‘violence against women’ means all acts of gender- based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering (Article 3, emphasis added). Economic abuse is the control of a person’s economic resources through restriction, exploitation or sabotage. Resources can include money, food, transportation and accommodation (SEA, 2020b). It is important to note that economic abuse is a distinct form of controlling behaviour that is used by abusers across the spectrum of VAWG.

6. The links between all forms of VAWG and economic abuse are crucial to understand but remain under-researched. We have briefly referenced some of the existing research VAW0016

connecting specific forms of VAWG to economic abuse, while particularly expanding on this in the context of domestic abuse where most of the existing evidence is located.

Economic abuse in the context of domestic abuse

7. The Istanbul Convention defines ‘domestic violence’ to mean all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or , and these can occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares a residence with the victim (Article 3, emphasis added).

8. Abusers seek to undermine their partner’s ability to resist coercive control through depleting their personal, social and tangible resources. Controlling behaviour (restriction, exploitation and/or sabotage) that interferes with a partner’s ability to acquire, use and maintain economic resources is known as economic abuse.

9. Economic abuse as a form of domestic abuse is characterised when perpetrators seek to reinforce or create economic dependency and/or instability. This, in turn, limits women’s choices and their ability to build or access safety. The term ‘economic abuse’ recognises that it is not just money and finances that can be controlled by an abuser (known as ‘financial abuse’) but also the things that money can buy, like food, clothing, transportation and housing (Sharp-Jeffs, 2015). The Domestic Abuse Act defines ‘economic abuse’ as any behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to (a)acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or (b)obtain goods or services.

10. Given it does not require physical proximity, economic abuse can continue, escalate or even start after separation and be experienced for many years (Stark, 2007). Further, it rarely happens in isolation, with 85% of those reporting economic abuse also having experienced other forms of abuse (Butt, 2020).

11. When women and girls experience inference with acquiring, maintaining or using economic resources it also has a significant impact on their emotional wellbeing and physical safety (SEA, 2020c). The power derived from this form of abuse threatens a woman’s economic stability, undermines her safety and that of her children, maintains dependence on the perpetrator, acts as a barrier to leaving, and is a driver for returning. The consequences of coerced debt or poor credit ratings can keep women in poverty for decades (SEA, 2020c) exposing them to new forms of violence such as sex for rent.

12. SEA has recently published the results of a pilot study with 278 victim-survivors on the nature and prevalence of economic abuse in the UK (SEA, 2020c: p8) with the following findings:

• 95% of domestic abuse victims experience at least one form of economic abuse.

• 60% of victims of economic abuse have been coerced into debt.

• The average amount of coerced debt per woman was £4,600; the highest was over £40,000.

• 73% found that their partner kept vital information about finances from them. VAW0016

13. Evidence from the national financial support line for victim-survivors of domestic abuse which we run in partnership with Money Advice Plus (MAP) also uncovered that close to half (44%) of the debt that victim-survivors faced was priority debt, meaning they were at risk of being made homeless or having their utilities cut off.

14. SEA's Cost of Covid-19 study found examples of perpetrators sabotaging women’s ability to work or study, refusing to do childcare, hiding phones and computers, forcing women into debt or further debt, withholding, reducing or unreliably paying child maintenance and threatening women’s physical safety alongside their economic security. (SEA 2021a)

Economic abuse in the context of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

15. The government defines child sexual exploitation as a form of child , which ‘occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator’ (Department of Education, 2017). For people aged 18 or older, this is defined as prostitution which includes performing sexual acts to acquire money, food, drugs, or lodging (Tyler, 2009).

16. Research with young people found that the highest predictors of sexual exploitation comprised behaviours associated with desperation and need; poverty, homelessness, temporary accommodation (Klatt et al, 2014). For instance, a recent review of literature (Buller et al, 2020) found themes connecting an expectation by some adults that girls and young women will exchange sex for favours exacerbated by pressure to contribute financially to the family. Children and young people remain trapped in situations of sexual exploitation as a way to provide for themselves and their families in a context of economic inequality and instability. In addition, men and boys were found to expect sex in exchange for gifts or attention.

17. The impact of Covid and the closing of schools heightened the risk factors for CSE with more families in poverty and significantly less referrals to children’s services; a fall of 10% on the last three years (Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 2021).

18. Therefore, girls and young women who are at risk of or are being sexually exploited are subject to a number of intersecting forces; structural inequality, workplace inequity, disrupted education, child-rearing and family responsibilities and oppressive social contexts which combine to limit their economic security (Bowie & Dopwell, 2013).

The economic impact of sexual violence and rape (including CSA)

19. Rape and sexual assault that is not part of a pattern of partner abuse has high economic costs for victim-survivors and society as a whole as referenced in the VAWG Strategy consultation (GOV.UK, 2020) What is less well-known is the medium- and long-term impact on victim-survivors’ economic wellbeing. Mental health symptoms as a result of sexual violence are the biggest barrier to educational attainment, employment rates and earnings over a victim-survivor’s life course and treatments such as medication and counselling are additional cost burdens (Loya, 2015). Women who have experienced sexual violence are VAW0016

twice as likely to be unemployed and those in employment struggle with absenteeism, being forced to take time off unpaid and in some cases, losing their jobs altogether (ibid). Subsequently survivors’ economically precarious situation can influence their employment decisions and add to their risk of job or earnings loss. 20. Sexual violence leaves women managing long-term changes in income, poverty, occupation, or economic stability with homelessness and suicide at its extremes. Sexual violence materially harms women’s long-term economic standing and compromises women’s ability to live independently (Voth Schrag, 2015).

Economic abuse and harmful practices

21. These forms of VAWG include but are not limited to female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and so-called ‘honour’ based crimes. There are some specific ways in which economic abuse can manifest in these cases: women and girls can be pressured to return to work soon after having a baby in order to support a prospective partner’s migration application, others who do manage to leave an abusive spouse, live their lives constrained by persistent threats and from family and community (Gill et al, 2018: p576).

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

22. It is important to recognise that FGM may often occur within a context of coercion and control, involving different forms of abuse including economic abuse. At the same time economic factors play into the prevalence of FGM, with women who work as cutters relying on this for their income. The CPS legal guidance on FGM includes as factors tending in favour of a prosecution in the public interest: evidence of marketing or advertising to women; and evidence of financial benefit or incentive to the offence (CPS, 2019).

Forced marriage

23. Forced marriage is not motivated by identical reasons across cultural groups, however poverty and financial gain i.e. through bride price, can be decisive factors (Sharp, n.d.). The government’s guidelines on handling forced marriage cases list a number of economic and socio-economic factors as motives, including financial gain; ensuring land, property and wealth remains within the family; and assisting claims for UK residence and citizenship.

24. Not leaving or staying in a forced marriage can be linked to a lack of financial and housing support to do so; the No Recourse to Public Funds rule is a particular issue in relation to this for some women (see below for more detail).

25. Exacerbating victim-survivors’ vulnerability is the sabotage of their economic resources, for example being denied access to a mobile phone or money. More long-term impacts are manifest in the interruption or withdrawal of support for young women’s education or having no control over childbearing (Sharp, n.d.).

Economic exploitation and image-based sexual offending

26. These are a group of connected and overlapping forms of harm that have common characteristics. Websites hosting private or manipulated sexual images and videos of women VAW0016

taken with or without their consent are shared to audiences of millions and are worth millions of pounds (McGlynn et al, 2017).

27. While requests from women to take down offending images are often met with no response, relationships between women’s organisations and non-traditional partners such as financial institutions can have much more powerful results. After Visa and MasterCard cut their ties with the website Pornhub last November, the company running the website were forced to remove all content featuring under-age and trafficked women and girls. Overnight this reduced the number of videos on their site from 13 million to 4 million (Paul, 2020).

Prostitution

28. Many women who engage in prostitution are subject to high levels of social exclusion resulting from a series of linked and mutually reinforcing issues. These include low income, poverty, debt, unemployment, poor education, health problems, housing problems, crime, lack of social support and other adverse life events (Balfour & Allen, 2014).

29. However, female students unlikely to suffer social exclusion also engage in prostitution to fund their studies; the number of which are thought to have increased with the introduction of top-up tuition fees (ibid). Therefore, the economic drivers pushing women and girls into prostitution need to be fully recognised. Intersecting vulnerabilities in women’s lives such as leaving care, prison, hospital, education or mental healthcare systems make them targets to male predators who use their situation to coerce them into prostitution (ibid).

30. With fewer jobs available, welfare benefits too low to meet the ever-increasing cost of living, (especially for single mothers and women who are often marginalised from the mainstream employment structure) the financial drive to engage in prostitution is very strong (Brents & Sanders, 2010). This is now exacerbated with the Covid situation. Debt specifically, plays a significant role in driving women into prostitution (Balfour & Allen, 2014) and keeping them there. In one study (Bindel et al, 2012) 52 per cent of the women reported struggling to pay off debt.

31. As with CSE, desperation, homelessness and need power the prostitution industry as a form of survival for migrant women, asylum seekers and those in poverty as a last resort to provide food, shelter or support families (ibid). Sex-trafficking and pimping are forms of VAWG that affect often young and debt-bonded women and girls, demonstrating there are socio-economic, economic, power and dependency factors which may drive entrance into sex work through trafficking and coercive control (Jackson et al., 2010).

32. Factors which lead to women’s involvement in prostitution, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, debt and vulnerability and how to tackle them, have as yet largely been overlooked by policies (Cusick & Berney, 2005). By contrast, the majority of policies are led by a criminal justice response, seriously reducing women’s access to alternative forms of employment or education (Balfour & Allen, 2014).

Economic abuse and sexual VAW0016

33. Behaviour known as sexual harassment is in part the result of a social context of gender inequality that in turn shapes normative expectations surrounding femininity and masculinity both online and offline (Connell, 1987). Online, as an extension of offline harassment, it can limit the freedoms and ‘space for action’ (Kelly, 2003) of predominantly women impacting their tangible and economic opportunities such as professional profile or employment opportunities (Henry & Powell, 2016).

34. Research evidence connects sexual harassment in university settings and workplaces to negative consequences which impact predominantly on female victim-survivors who are employees, university students, staff as well as the organisations and institutions themselves (Quick et al., 2017). Hostile work or education environments where unwelcome sexual advances effect women’s abilities to do their job or study, privilege men’s advancement, employment and educational attainment (Paraskevopoulou, 2020).

35. Gender inequality, poverty and homelessness are a conducive context for VAWG. The Covid pandemic is a prime example, where lockdown and job cuts have hit women worst (Women’s Budget Group, 2020) and male predators have seized the opportunity to coerce or force women into a choice between sex for rent or eviction.

Stalking links to EA

36. It has been shown that drastically affects victims’ wellbeing, including their financial wellbeing. It has a substantial effect on their daily lives, with many not leaving the house (or not doing so alone), while some may move to a new home or job permanently in an attempt to get away from their stalker. Stalking can take place for many years and involve interference with employment by visiting victim’s workplaces and causes victims to change their lives in ways that significantly impact their economic resources, including having to replace their car. (Burrows)

Trafficking links to EA

37. Trafficking involves the recruitment or movement of persons for the purpose of exploitation, through a variety of means including: false promises relating to earnings and economic betterment; or of a position of vulnerability; or giving or receiving payment or benefits to obtain the consent of someone having control over the victim. Exploitation could include forcing the victim into prostitution or forced labour of services. 38. A trafficked woman or girl may also be subject to a coerced debt she can never repay, has no access to finances or money of her own and understands herself to be an illegal immigrant, a criminal rather than a victim-survivor. In this situation the barriers to escape are substantial, even once the victim-survivors have disclosed their abuse.

How VAWG should be prevented and addressed

Primary prevention – creating economic safety

39. The links outlined above between different forms of VAWG and women’s economic insecurity, point to the importance of women’s economic empowerment for their safety. VAW0016

This therefore needs to be a central focus of the work on prevention and an integral part of the new VAWG strategy. This includes:  Work with young people and in schools to teach the importance of economic equality between women and men, and a focus on the importance of economic independence.  Putting in place measures to empower women economically.  Challenging social attitudes about who 'owns' economic resources.  Ensuring that systems do not inadvertently facilitate economic control by abusers.

40. If women’s economic independence is to be fostered, government policies need to be consciously aligned with this goal. However, there are areas where this not the case, and some of these are discussed below vis-à-vis domestic abuse.

Access to legal assistance

41. Many survivors of domestic abuse rely on the legal system as the only way to obtain protection and redress. However far too many of them are in effect shut out of justice due to the requirement that they undergo a mean test in order to qualify for legal aid. The means test operates unfairly on victims of economic abuse. They could be assessed as failing the means test due to money or assets which they appear to own, but are unable to access or control due to economic abuse. Given how commonly economic abuse co-exists with other forms of domestic abuse, SEA recommends that domestic abuse survivors should be eligible for legal aid without being subject to means testing. This was called for by the Bar Council as an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill, and SEA very much hopes that the review of the legal aid means test currently being conducted by the Ministry of Justice will result in this much-needed change.

No Recourse to Public Funds

42. The Istanbul Convention requires that measures to protect the rights of victims are secured without discrimination on any ground, including migrant or refugee status, or other status (Article 4(3)). It further requires that countries take measures to ensure victims have access to services including financial assistance, housing, education, training and assistance in finding employment (Article 20(1)).

43. Currently the protection available to migrant women with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) falls short of the requirements of the Convention. Women with NRPF status find it very difficult to access refuge and other routes to safety and support, leaving them with the impossible choice of becoming homeless or destitute, or staying with or returning to the perpetrator. Only 5.8% of refuge vacancies in England in 2018-19 could accept a woman with NRPF (Women’s Aid, 2020), and only 7% of women with NRPF could be accommodated in refuge (Women’s Aid, 2017). The Destitution Domestic Violence Concession (DDVC) allows survivors applying for leave to remain under the Domestic Violence Rule access to public funds for three months, but it is only available to women on spousal or partner visas, which excludes survivors who are on work visas, visitor visas, student visas, domestic workers etc. While this concession is very useful for those to whom it applies, the three-month period is VAW0016

insufficient for survivors to find safety and gain financial security (Step-Up Migrant Women Coalition, 2020). SEA therefore supports the Step-Up Migrant Women Coalition and Southall Black Sisters in their call, which disappointingly was not included in the Domestic Abuse Act, to:

- Remove the NRPF condition for survivors of domestic abuse

- Extend the DDVC to all survivors regardless of immigration status

- Extend the time period of the DDVC to at least six months

Child maintenance

44. Failure, delay and unreliability in payment of child maintenance has been consistently brought up by survivors as a means of continuing economic abuse and control hugely impacting their day-to-day ability to survive and provide for their children. Despite this the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) put in place a policy during Covid whereby people could stop paying maintenance simply by informing the CMS that their employment was affected by the pandemic and without producing the evidence usually required. This was a clear instance of a policy where perpetrators’ self-declared needs trumped the rights of survivors to what was often only a minimum standard of living. SEA joined Gingerbread in protesting against this move, and we called for the government to make a contribution in these instances to make up at least some of the shortfall in maintenance due.

45. Where perpetrators are using or have used Covid regulations or the failure of institutions to enforce behaviour or payments during or post-pandemic, they should be identified and brought to justice. We know that the aftermath of the pandemic will continue to affect survivors of economic abuse and we must adapt to understand how abusers take advantage of this context and to support and empower survivors. (SEA 2021a)

Universal Credit

46. The single payment made to joint claimants of Universal Credit facilitates economic abuse and makes it easier for abusers to control household income. More broadly, restricting one partner’s access to an independent income compromises their ability to develop economic stability. The potential for a partner to prioritise his own spending above rent, for example, may result in women finding themselves jointly responsible for arrears. Separate payments of Universal Credit should therefore be provided as a default for joint claimants. Requiring claimants to request ‘split’ payments as a way of addressing this issue is not safe for victims of economic abuse, since actively challenging the control exerted by the abuser is dangerous for women; research shows that, when women experience economic abuse within a context of coercive control, then they are at increased risk of domestic homicide (Websdale, 1999).

Paid leave

47. Making legislative provision for paid employment leave is an important measure to support survivors of economic abuse. This assurance that job security and payment will continue where victims need to deal with domestic abuse – to make plans and prepare to leave an abusive partner, manage the aftermath of leaving, and have access to the economic resources they need to rebuild their life independently, can be vital. New Zealand has VAW0016

legislation in place which provides entitlement to paid employment leave for victims of domestic abuse. SEA strongly recommends that this be adopted in UK. EY and Vodafone already have a policy of providing domestic abuse victims paid leave, with EY providing a week and Vodafone 10 days. Concerns have been expressed that smaller firms would find it difficult to bear the costs of such a policy. Given the economic and social cost of domestic abuse, estimated at £66 billion, SEA has recommended in previous submissions that the government considers covering any additional costs that arise from granting such leave in the case of firms with less than a specified turnover or number of staff.

Compensation/reparation for economic abuse

48. In order to ensure full justice for economic abuse victims, they need to be compensated for the economic loss they have suffered due to the abuse. Perpetrators should not be allowed to economically benefit from their abuse but should be held responsible to pay back to the victim the gain he has accrued from the abuse wherever this is possible. The criminal justice response needs to look at innovative ways to achieve reparation for victims through the prosecutorial process, such as through more effective use of legislation like the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Secondary prevention

Criminal

49. There is very little research on how perpetrator programmes tackle economic abuse specifically and the male entitlement that drives it, more broadly. The preferred route for perpetrators in the UK is the criminal justice system, in spite of research showing many repeat their violent behaviour in future relationships and minimal evidence that arrest and conviction alter men’s behaviour (Hester & Westmarland, 2005).

Community

50. A comprehensive study (Kelly & Westmarland, 2015) aimed to evaluate changes in men’s behaviour within the context of community responses to domestic violence. It pointed to aspects of economic abuse that must be clearly embedded in future programmes in order to effectively recognise and tackle perpetration.

51. The research identified 12 indicators of change with particular regard to restricting the freedoms of female partners. The most stubborn of these indicators was economic abuse, ‘tries to use money/finances to control me’ which reduced by only 3%, the lowest indicator change (Kelly & Westmarland, 2015: p14). The men involved in the research confessed knowing that, ‘falsely claiming to have no money or withholding money was particularly effective’ (Downes et al, 2019: p276).

52. Research data and the evidence of both perpetrators and survivors points to a particular motivation in how gender roles are embodied in everyday activities and social relations. This underpins the concept of coercive control (Stark, 2007), directly linked to economic abuse in 60% of cases (Sharp & Learmonth, 2017) and confirms that men are attempting to enforce VAW0016

an extreme form of the traditionally masculine view of what a man and a woman should be in heterosexual relationships (Kelly & Westmarland, 2015).

53. It is essential that economic abuse and its links to coercive control and the misogynistic behaviours of male entitlement legitimised by the notion of ‘provider’ that drive it are explicitly tackled in future perpetrator programmes (Downes et al, 2019).

Regulatory

54. While there is always more to be done with regard to address the economic aspects of criminal justice responses to all survivors of VAWG, we would also like to emphasise that criminal justice agencies are not alone in being able to tackle abusers. SEA would point to aspects of regulatory law i.e. professional conduct, fitness to practise etc. that work beyond and in conjunction with criminal justice to make abusers accountable. A recent call to action by Respect (2020) confirms the need to train professional public and private organisations to give them, ‘the confidence to use the tools at their disposal effectively – whether it’s the ability to use a professional code of conduct or the knowledge of how to re-house a perpetrator out of area’ (p9).

Banking systems

55. SEA focuses on ‘the development of new approaches to economic abuse, working with organisations to review existing systems, policies and procedures’ (SEA, 2021b).

56. This has led to partnerships with financial organisations outside of those traditionally associated with VAWG charities, such as banks, building societies, law firms and insurers. For example, we have worked with Lloyds Banking Group to develop a pioneering specialist team to support customers who are victims of economic abuse and have a member of the team seconded to it (SEA, 2020d). A more detailed overview of this work can be found here.

57. Our experience is that banking systems are a powerful way of supporting victim-survivors and holding perpetrators to account and we would like to explore the possibility of leveraging these partnerships across other forms of VAWG.

Recommendations

58. Following a year of the pandemic, a focus on women's economic stability and safety has never been more important. The measures introduced to stem the spread of Covid-19 and protect the economy, have had a negative impact on women's economic rights and abusive men have taken advantage of the conducive context created by economic uncertainty and isolation to increase the level of economic abuse across all forms of VAWG.

59. While urging the government to reconsider its approach in separating out strategies to address VAWG and domestic abuse (see above), SEA is calling for women's economic safety to be at the heart of an integrated approach to tackling VAWG. As our submission has shown, abusers use economic control as a form of coercion across domestic abuse, trafficking, forced marriage and other forms of VAWG. VAW0016

60. This requires that the government should avoid policies which inadvertently facilitate economic abuse and promote those that support women’s economic independence and stability. Government policies, in particular those relating to social security and child maintenance, should be vetted through the lens of gender equality before being introduced or changed. This includes considering VAWG-related impacts, given that VAWG is a form of gender-based discrimination under international law (UNCEDAW).

61. Domestic abuse survivors should be exempt from the operation of the legal aid means test.

62. In order to ensure equality and non-discrimination of all survivors of VAWG, migrant victims of domestic abuse must have equal protection with other survivors. In order to achieve this: - The No Recourse to Public Funds condition must be removed for all survivors of domestic abuse - The Destitution Domestic Violence Concession must be extended to all survivors regardless of immigration status - The time period of the DDVC must be extended to at least six months

63. Separate payments should be made as a default in the case of joint claims for Universal Credit.

64. Paid employment leave should be provided for domestic abuse survivors.

65. Greater attention needs to be paid to providing compensation or reparation for economic harm/loss caused by domestic abuse, exploring the use of laws such as the Proceeds of Crime Act.

66. Debt and benefits advice should be embedded within specialist domestic abuse services, as a key measure to support women to rebuild their lives following abuse and deal with less understood aspects of economic abuse such as coerced debt.

67. Programmes relating to prevention and perpetrators must explicitly recognise economic abuse and its links to coercive control, and tackle the behaviours of male entitlement legitimised by the notion of ‘provider’.

68. Approaches to addressing VAWG should include non-traditional stakeholders such as banks and other financial institutions, and the possibility of leveraging these partnerships across other forms of VAWG should be explored.

69. Alongside improvements within the criminal justice system, other areas such as regulatory law, professional conduct and fitness to practise that work beyond and in conjunction with criminal justice should be utilised to make abusers accountable.

May 2021 VAW0016

References

Balfour, R. and Allen, J. (2014). A Review of the Literature on Sex Workers and Social Exclusion. [online] Dept of Health. Available at:

Bindel, J. Brown, L. Easton, H. Matthews, R. and Reynolds, L. (2012). Breaking down the barriers: A study of how women exit prostitution. London: Eaves and London South Bank University.

Bowie S. and Dopwell D. (2013). Metastressors as barriers to self-sufficiency among TANF-reliant African American and Latina women. Affilia, 28, 177–193.

Brents, B.G. and Sanders, T. (2010). Mainstreaming the Sex Industry: Economic Inclusion and Social Ambivalence. Journal of Law and Society. 37(1): 40-60.

Buller, A., Pichon, M., McAlpine, A., Cislaghi, B., Heise, L. and Meiksin, R., 2020. Systematic review of social norms, attitudes, and factual beliefs linked to the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. & , 104, p.104471.

Burrows, H., Why is stalking becoming the ‘in’ word? , Suzy Lamplugh Trust Blogs - https://www.suzylamplugh.org/Blog/why-is-stalking-becoming-the-in-word1

Butt, E. (2020). Know Economic Abuse, The Cooperative Bank and Refuge

Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

CPS, Female Genital Mutilation Prosecution Guidance, 2019, https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/female-genital- mutilation-prosecution-guidance

Cusick, L. and Berney, L. (2005). Prioritizing punitive responses over public health: commentary on the Home Office consultation document Paying the Price. Critical Social Policy. 25(4): 596-606.

Department of Education (2017), Child sexual exploitation: Definition and a guide for practitioners, local leaders and decision makers working to protect children from child sexual exploitation

Downes, J., Kelly, L. and Westmarland, N. (2019). ‘It’s a work in progress’: men’s accounts of gender and change in their use of coercive control. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 3(3), pp.267-282.

Financial Support Line (SEA and Money Advice Plus)

Gill. A., Cox. P., and Weir. R. (2018). Shaping Priority Services for UK Victims of Honour-Based Violence/Abuse, Forced Marriage, and Female Genital Mutilation. The Howard Journal, Vol 57 No 4, pp. 576–595.

GOV.UK. (2020). Violence Against Women And Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2021-2024: Call For Evidence. [online] Available at:

Henry N., and Powell A. (2018). Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence: A Literature Review of Empirical Research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 19(2):195-208. doi: 10.1177/1524838016650189 VAW0016

Hester, M. and Westmarland, N. (2005) Tackling Domestic Violence: Effective Interventions and Approaches. London: Home Office.

Kelly, L. (2003). The wrong debate: Reflections on why force is not the key issue with respect to trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. Feminist Review, 73, 139-144.

Kelly, L. and Westmarland, N. (2015). Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes: Steps towards Change. [online] Available at: [Accessed 31 January 2021].

Klatt, T., Cavner, D. and Egan, V. (2014). Rationalising predictors of child sexual exploitation and sex-trading. Child Abuse & Neglect, 38(2), pp.252-260.

Loya, R. (2015). Rape as an Economic Crime: The Impact of Sexual Violence on Survivors’ Employment and Economic Well-Being. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(16), pp.2793-2813.

Office of the Children's Commissioner (2021). Too Many At-Risk Children Are Still Invisible To Social Care. [online] London: Children's Commissioner. Available at:

Paraskevopoulou A. (2020). Gender and Precarious Work. Handbook of Labour, Human Resources and Population Economics, pages 1-18.

Paul, K. (2020). Pornhub removes millions of videos after investigation finds child abuse content. The Guardian, [online] Available at:

Quick, J. C. , McFadyen, M. A. and Chen, P. Y. (2017). Sexual Harassment. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 286–298. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000054.

Respect (2020). A Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Strategy for England and Wales. [online] Available at:

SEA, 2020a https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/2016/pdf/

SEA, 2020b SEA-Coerced-Debt-Statistics-08-2020-Final-1.pdf (survivingeconomicabuse.org)

SEA, 2020c SEA-EJP-Evaluation-Framework_112020-2-2.pdf (survivingeconomicabuse.org)

SEA, 2020d. SEA Annual Report 2019-20. [online] Available at:

SEA, 2021a. The Cost of Covid-19: Economic abuse throughout the pandemic [online] Available at:

SEA. 2021b. Our strategy and impact - Surviving Economic Abuse. [online] Available at:

Sharp-Jeffs, N. (2015). Money Matters, The Cooperative Bank and Refuge

Sharp-Jeffs, N. and Learmonth, S. (2017) Into Plain Sight: - How economic abuse is reflected in successful prosecutions of controlling or coercive behaviour

Sharp, N., n.d. Forced Marriage In The UK. [online] London: Refuge. Available at:

Stark, E. (2007) Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Step-Up Migrant Women Coalition, joint submission to the Domestic Abuse Bill Committee, 2020, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmpublic/DomesticAbuse/memo/DAB19.htm

Tyler K. (2009). Risk factors for trading sex among homeless young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38 (2009), pp. 290-297. VAW0016

Voth Schrag, R. (2015). Economic Abuse and Later Material Hardship: Is Depression a Mediator?. Affilia, 30(3), pp.341-351.

Women’s Budget Group (2020). Covid-19 And Economic Challenges For Young Women. [online] Available at:

Websdale, N. (1999). Understanding Domestic Homicide California: Northeastern University Press

Women’s Aid (2017). Nowhere to turn: Findings from the first year of the No Woman Turned Away project

Women’s Aid (2020). The Domestic Abuse Report 2020: The Annual Audit, Bristol: Women’s Aid.