Fifth Of Young Men Do Not Consider Controlling Someones Spending To Be Abuse

Nearly one in five young adult men fail to recognise controlling someone’s spending as economic abuse, according to research published by the Home Office and charity Surviving Economic Abuse.

Nearly a fifth (19%) of 18 to 24-year-old men surveyed believed that controlling how someone spends their money is probably not or definitely not abuse, compared with 6% of 45 to 54-year-old men.

Younger men were also more likely to miss other warning signs, with 16% of 18 to 24-year-olds believing that taking out credit in someone’s name without consent is not abuse, compared with just 4% of 45 to 54-year-old men.

UK banks, spanning both high street and digital-only providers – including Monzo, TSB, Metro Bank, Santander, Revolut and HSBC, have joined forces with the Government’s Enough campaign to highlight economic abuse behaviours that can be dismissed, misunderstood or missed altogether.

In banking apps and certain physical branches, customers will see campaign adverts highlighting four forms of economic abuse – restricting someone’s ability to earn; running up debts in someone else’s name; controlling someone’s money; and misusing payment references to harass someone.

Economic abuse, a form of domestic abuse that is a criminal offence under the controlling or coercive behaviour offence, involves domestic abusers controlling a current or ex-partner’s money and economic resources.

Abusers trap people by controlling their money, restricting their work, or running up debts in their name. The abuse may continue after the relationship has broken down, in an attempt to prevent the person from making a fresh start.

The survey found that, overall, awareness of economic abuse is high, with more than nine in 10 (94%) men able to identify at least one economically abusive behaviour as abuse.

To confront other hidden forms of abuse, banks are also rolling out new technology to detect and prevent abusive messages from being received through payment references when money is transferred online.