Financial Abuse FAQs

Financial abuse or economic abuse involves behaviors of one person aimed at controlling another person's ability to use and keep money or other economic resources. Financial abuse can lead to income and job loss, housing instability, limited transportation, and decreased access to childcare. Financial abuse can also be used as a tool to control a person's behavior, including their ability to leave an abusive relationship. Financial abuse can also leave survivors with long-term economic impacts like low credit scores and high debt. Financial abuse typically falls into one or more of these categories: 

• Coerced debt = using financial debt as a means of abusive control
• Economic restriction = putting limits on money or economic resources
• Economic exploitation = using or stealing a survivor's resources or money 

During an abusive relationship, a survivor might experience job loss, credit damage, theft, debt, missed workdays, and/or loss of professional advancement opportunities because of someone else's behavior. 

Financial abuse can also cause a person to experience lost wages, housing instability, childcare costs, and long-term costs because of the abuse.

While creating or taking steps toward a safer situation, a survivor might be faced with property damage costs, medical debt, relocation or moving costs, debt from their partner, counseling costs, and legal fees. 

Coerced debt can look like a lot of different things. It can look like:

• A person taking out credit cards in a survivor's name or stealing and using their credit card without permission. 
• Forcing a survivor to obtain loans for the other person or companies (like banks or credit unions) or tricking or pressuring a survivor into signing a quitclaim deed for a home to either make the survivor give their home to someone else or making a survivor own a home against their will. 
• Illegally driving a survivor's car and racking up traffic and parking ticket debt is also a form of coercive debt. 
• Taking out personal loans, auto debt, and medical debt. 

Yes, guarantors and co-signers agree to pay if the other person doesn't pay. Creditors can go after either or both people on a contract or account. 

Economic restriction occurs where someone does not allow another person to use their money how they want to and/or controls another person's access to money. Economic abuse also occurs when someone prevents another person from accessing finances or deceives the other person about finances. 

Misusing finances, whether through identity theft, theft of money, spending money without permission, or coerced debt are all forms of economic exploitation. 

Identity theft in a relationship can look like one person using another's personal identifying information to take out or use credit in the survivor's name without permission or authorization. 

Economic exploitation can also look like someone forcing you to write a bad check, file a fraudulent tax return, or forcing you to pay bills or rent and negatively impacting your credit even when the person who is perpetrating financial abuse also lives with you. 

Yes, a partner interfering with another person's ability to keep a job and make money is also a form of economic restriction often called "employment sabotage." Coming to someone's workplace repeatedly, contacting someone's supervisor and telling them lies or private information about someone, or harassing the person or their coworkers at work can lead to a survivor losing their job. These and other abusive behaviors can also lead to a person missing workdays, getting paid less, and/or missing out on professional advancement. 

Similarly, forcing you to turn over your paychecks or public benefits money or tracking your spending in a controlling way are all forms of financial or economic abuse. 

First, it is important to remember that you do have options. What you can do and the relief available will depend on the specific details of your situation. Legal Aid DC can help you consider your options. There is also space for consumer advocacy and/or for certain remedies through legal processes. For example, Small Claims Court could provide an avenue for recovering money. 

In the case of identity theft and/or coerced credit card debt, you can report the misuse to your credit card company, and ask them to cancel your card and remove the coerced charges before they send you a new card. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has advice for disputing a credit card charge on its website here. Disputing a charge generally should be done as quickly as possible because you may lose some protections if you report the unauthorized charge more than 60 days after the charge occurred. 

If you are unsure of your financial situation, or just want additional information, you can check your credit report. Your credit report is a record of your credit history including credit cards, loans, and other financial activity in your name. You can find information on getting a free credit report here. There are three Credit Reporting Agencies that you can pull a report from, and they are: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. You are entitled to one free copy of your credit report from each Credit Reporting Agency per year, and if you get an "adverse action" notice or are an identity theft victim and have a fraud alert. 

In the case of fraud, you also have several options. You can send a dispute letter to the Credit Reporting Agency with a copy of your credit report highlighting any unfamiliar accounts and including additional information to support your explanation. You can also request a Fraud Alert, a credit freeze, or an identity theft block under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681). More information on disputing credit reports is available on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website, here.

Potentially. What you can file and the relief available will depend on the specific details of your situation. In DC, a Civil Protection Order can be granted when one person (the Respondent) has committed a crime against another (the Petitioner) and there is a qualifying relationship, such as a romantic/dating/sexual relationship. A final Civil Protection Order can require the Respondent to provide financial assistance to the Petitioner in the form of spousal support, rental/mortgage assistance, and reimbursement for property damage and medical costs. These financial forms of relief can be requested to ease the impact of financial abuse, economic restriction, and economic exploitation. 

If you are married and experiencing financial abuse, you may be able to get relief by filing a case in Family Court. You may want to file for an Absolute Divorce or Separation. As part of those processes, you can request financial relief in the form of alimony, exclusive use of a family home or other dwelling, or an equitable distribution of marital property and debt. What you can file and the relief available will depend on the specific details of your situation. Legal Aid DC can help you consider your options. 

If you are listed as the head of household, you can submit a letter to a DHS service center asking them to remove your partner and update your household. If your partner is listed as the head of household, you will need to submit a new combined application for benefits so that DHS can create a separate case in their system.