A new report is calling on government departments and industry groups to make it easier for women to resolve financial problems arising from family violence.
The Restoring Financial Safety: Legal Responses to Economic Abuse report, by the Wyndham Legal Service (WLS) and Good Shepherd, found many women facing family violence are also the victims of financial abuse at the hands of their partners. And they are too often unable to get the help they need to resolve their issues.
WLS spoke to 25 separated women for the report. All of them had taken out intervention orders and WLS discovered they were also facing problems in accessing bank accounts, mobile phones or motor vehicles, or were being pursued for debts incurred by their former partners.
WLS manager Denis Nelthorpe said that, in most cases, the women struggled to find help and were often told to take their ex-partner to the Family Court – at a cost of $750 an hour.
Mr Nelthorpe was also shocked to discover that women who were being pursued for unpaid fines or tolls were being told to nominate their ex-partner as being responsible for the fines, so that they could be pursued for their own debts.
However, many of them were too scared to take such action, fearing it would aggravate their former partners.
“Why would a women who has an intervention order against her ex-partner nominate him and risk aggravating him? You just wouldn’t go there,” Mr Nelthorpe said.
“There is no easy way for women to resolve these issues.
“We need to find ways to resolve these issues that prevent women ending up in hospital.”
Mr Nelthorpe hopes the report will encourage industry and governments to take family violence seriously and put the safety of women first.
“I was really surprised by the number of women facing these issues and by how many practical problems arising out of family violence had no solution,” he said.
“The funding we get to do this work doesn’t extend to dealing with these issues. We hope the report will persuade industries to get on board quickly, but we also need government departments to get on board.
“We need to get further funding to explore these issues,” Mr Nelthorpe said.
Case study
Jennifer and Stephen* were in a relationship for five years and had a child together.
They have been separated for two years.
Jennifer now lives in a private rental, juggling work when she can with the responsibility of raising their child.
During their relationship, the couple combined their individual car loans into one joint loan to reduce their overall repayments.
Once they had separated, Stephen refused to contribute to the repayments, leaving Jennifer servicing a debt of $18,000.
Stephen had no interest in paying off the loan with Jennifer; he was not working and already had a damaged credit rating.
Jennifer, however, wanted to protect her credit rating so she continued to pay for the loan even though Stephen had taken the car.
The legal service unsuccessfully applied to the bank to waive the debt or remove Jennifer’s name from it.
Stephen’s unwillingness to sign over the car to Jennifer so that she could sell it and pay off the loan, or at least hold the asset that the loan pertained to, was further evidence of Stephen’s financial abuse.
*Names have been changed.
