“I Didn’t Even Know What Financial Abuse Was”

It’s a form of violence that’s lesser known and less frequently researched. “Financial abuse sits at the intersection of two things our culture treats as private: relationships and money,” explains Carly Kalish, CEO of the charity Victim Services Toronto. “Abuse at that intersection stays hidden almost by default.” While physical abuse often leaves tangible evidence, “financial abuse leaves a bad credit score, debt in a survivor’s name, gaps in employment history and a bank account she can’t access,” she says.

Financial abuse is generally categorized into different subsets. The first, economic control, occurs when an abuser prevents their victim from having access to or knowledge of finances. They might deny their victim access to necessities like food, clothing and medical care, track their spending, withhold jointly earned funds, lie about shared assets and prevent them from having access to a bank account.

Another subset of financial abuse is employment sabotage, where an abuser prevents their victim from obtaining or maintaining a job. An abuser might insist that their victim stay home to care for a child instead of putting them in daycare, or prevent their victim from going to their job until they lose employment. They might also hide documentation or IDs that would allow them to secure work.

The last type of financial abuse is economic exploitation—when the abuser coerces the victim to take out loans or credit cards under their name, fraudulently incurs debt in the victim’s name by forging signatures or spends joint money without consent.

Economic abuse is a powerful way for an abuser to exert control over their victim, Kalish says. “A survivor can be completely trapped, unable to leave, unable to retain a lawyer, unable to feed her children independently,” she explains. “When an abusive partner controls your money, they control every exit route a survivor might have.”

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