Web of systems exploited for insidious financial abuse
Perpetrators of financial abuse exploit tax and business systems to damage mostly women victims. (Diego Fedele/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP
Courts, banks and Centrelink are being used as a web of systems to perpetrate financial abuse, with experts calling for meaningful reforms to protect victims.
An estimated one in six women and one in 13 men experience financial abuse by a partner, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
This form of abuse can include making a partner liable for a debt they did not accrue, withholding funds such as child support, accessing superannuation early, making a partner a company director without their knowledge or falsifying tax returns.
Swinburne University researchers analysed submissions to a 2023 parliamentary inquiry by people who had experienced intimate partner financial abuse.
Perpetrators continued to be afforded privacy in their handling of personal finances while victim-survivors were often left with public debts, research author Kay Cook said.
"Private systems of financial wealth, like banking institutions, private businesses, superannuation and trust accounts give perpetrators of financial abuse opportunities to extract financial benefits and inflict financial harms on victim-survivors," she said.
Researchers also found auxiliaries such as bank managers, personal tax accountants and family lawyers opened the door to continued financial abuse, as they could inadvertently facilitate a perpetrator through legal pathways and continued client services.
Meanwhile, victim-survivors often experienced the consequences of the financial harms for years to come.
"Victims' financial resources are diminished, safe housing is compromised and they are bound to public systems and public debts, through Centrelink child support, the Australian Taxation Office and the family courts," Professor Cook said.
The Albanese government has pledged to crack down on perpetrators weaponising financial systems, proposing law reform in the superannuation, tax and social security systems to stop them being weaponised against survivors.
But experts say the family law system must also be examined as it is consistently used to inflict financial abuse after separation.
Perpetrators had embarked on an "insidious weaponisation" of the family law system, Southern Cross University academic Georgina Dimopoulos said.
"The family courts are enabling financial abuse through the misuse of court processes, victim-survivors not being able to afford legal representation and perpetrators draining victim-survivors' financial resources through prolonged litigation," she said.
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