Almost 4 million children in the UK are being affected by economic abuse within their families, with some even having birthday or pocket money stolen, according to new findings from the charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA).
Data gathered by SEA shows that in the past year alone, 27% of mothers with children under 18 have experienced behaviours classed as economic abuse, where a current or former partner controls family finances. This includes restricting access to bank accounts, blocking child benefit payments, and refusing to pay child maintenance.
As a result, many children are going without essentials such as food, clothing and school-related costs. A third of women who faced economic abuse from a former partner said their ex-partner refused to pay child support, or paid it inconsistently, even when they had the means to do so.
One in six mothers reported that a partner or ex-partner had stolen money from their child, including birthday or pocket money. The same proportion said their abuser had stopped, or attempted to stop, them accessing benefits they were entitled to.
One mother quoted in the research, whose children are now grown up, said: “My ex would stop maintenance payments right before Christmas.”
Sam Smethers, chief executive of SEA, said: “Economic abuse is a dangerous form of coercive control and children are being harmed by it every day.” She added that the charity’s research shows perpetrators are “stealing children’s pocket money, stopping mums accessing child benefit, and refusing to pay child support.”
She called on the government to publish its delayed Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, saying it must “close the loopholes that allow abusers to manipulate systems, like child maintenance, to destroy lives.”
The charity’s findings also show that mothers are three times more likely to experience economic abuse than women without children. This is the first time SEA has commissioned detailed research on the direct impact of economic abuse on children.
Smethers said: “When thinking about child abuse … people often think about physical harm and threat. But there are other forms of coercive control, and we do need to shine a light on it as that’s how you understand abuse.”
Jess Phillips, the government’s minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said: “Tackling economic abuse will be integral to achieving our goal of halving violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will continue to ensure children and young people are at the heart of this ambition.”
