Financial abuse could destroy a woman's social life and friends, a new survey has found.
Photo: flickr/jacob edward
The online survey, by Womens Refuge, found financial abuse not only included spending money but had wider implications on social life, jobs, housing and the ability to rebuild their lives once the relationship had ended.
Of the 450 respondents, 60 percent were in full-time jobs before the relationship, but only 27 percent were during the relationship, and that increased to just 34 percent when the relationship ended.
Women's Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said that had longer term implications for women, affecting retirement, KiwiSaver and their ability to rebuild their lives.
She said one woman had told of being made to sign a lease on a property, even though she had no control over the rent payments. She was liable for any damage to the property and rent arrears, often damaging her relationship with landlords.
Abusive partners also took advantage of women's credit ratings, running up debt in their name, she said.
The survey also showed the financial abuse could destroy a woman's social life.
"One of the things about a violent relationships is that there's a sense of isolation that normally sits around them, and once relationships are over it's very, very important that women have successful and strong social networks to rebuild their lives."
Like employment, the survey found 90 percent had really robust friendship groups before the relationship, that dropped by half while they were in the relationship and only 65 percent reported good solid friendship networks after the relationship ended.
"To rebuild your life you've got to be a part of the world around you," Ms Jury said.
Chief executive of Women's Refuge, Ang Jury Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
"If you're not participating, if you don't have friends, if you're not out and about and having a life then you start looking at things like depression and other mental illnesses.
The only thing that increased after the relationship, was support groups.
"That's good in a way, because it means women were working to find a way through the trauma and to rebuild their lives, but it's not really a positive consequence."
She said women needed to rebuild their everyday lives, likes sports groups.
Financial abuse often made it very hard to break up a relationship.
"If you have absolutely no access to money, the thought of moving on out and starting again is really, really daunting. For some of these women they had been forced to go on welfare benefits by their partner, even though they never had any access to that welfare benefit.
"What we saw was women who were threatened that if they did leave they would be reported to Work and Income, even though that fraud was arguably not theirs," she said.
She said financial abuse was not well recognised because it is invisible and something people don't like to think is happening.
"It's almost unthinkable in these days of women supposedly being so independent agents in their own right."
What should people do?
Dr Jury said they've developed to help family and friends identify financial abuse.
She said people also needed to be on the lookout.
If you've got a workmate who suddenly isn't coming to afterwork functions, or bails on work functions because they say they're broke, or whose clothing starts to look a wee bit shabby even though they've always been very well groomed and are on an adequate income.
It's subtle things like that, that people might find a little bit embarrassing to ask about, but could be a signal about what's going on, she said.
Where to get help:
Women's Refuge: (0800 733 843)
It's Not OK (0800 456 450)
Shine: 0508 744 633
]http://www.victimsinfo.govt.nz/ Victim Support]: 0800 650 654
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
