Complaints involving economic and domestic abuse

The Domestic Abuse Act emphasises that domestic abuse is not just physical violence, but can also be:

• emotional, psychological, or sexual abuse,
• coercive or controlling behaviour, and
• economic abuse.

Economic abuse is where an individual’s access to resources is limited or controlled. For example, controlling access to money or resources such as food, clothing and other necessities.

Economic abuse is often a form of coercive and controlling behaviour. It takes away someone's capacity to support themselves, making them financially dependent on the perpetrator.

It can also include exploitation and breaches of trust – such as spending someone else's money or requiring them to buy things or take out debts.

The Act now makes economic abuse part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse.

We set out here how we consider complaints that involve economic and domestic abuse, as well as some information and guidance for businesses about our approach.

People contact us when economic or domestic abuse has impacted them and their financial situation, and they think a financial business could have done more to help or step in. Or sometimes, because they feel the financial business did something wrong and they've lost out as a result. 

When we receive a complaint involving domestic or economic abuse, it often involves very complex or sensitive circumstances.

In most cases we see, the abuser is someone the complainant knows well, such as a partner, another family member, a friend, a relative or a carer. In some cases, the abuse is directly relevant to the complaint itself – for example where someone was coerced into taking a loan. 

In other cases, it's part of wider circumstances that impact on someone’s overall financial wellbeing  – for example where someone has left an abusive relationship and is experiencing financial difficulty as a result. 

Anyone can experience domestic abuse regardless of their age, background, gender, religion, sexuality or ethnicity. Complaints involving domestic and economic abuse are wide ranging and cut across the range of financial products we cover.

People have come to us saying: 

• I've been pressured into guaranteeing a loan
• Someone forced me to take out a loan in my own name for someone else's benefit 
• Someone took out loans/credit cards/overdrafts using my name without my knowledge or consent
• Someone used my credit card or account without my knowing
• I've been pressured into letting someone use my card/account
• Someone stopped making payments to our joint loan/mortgage to punish me or ruin my credit record
• Someone made me take out car finance or insurance in my name for their car
• Someone put all our debts into my name and left me to pay them all
• Someone made me sign over policies or investments to them
• An abuser cancelled insurance without my knowledge and now I’ve found I’m not covered

We can also help people who say: 

• I've separated from the abuser but we still have joint accounts and the business disclosed my address
• The abuser has left the property but won't agree to making changes – such as a reduced interest rate – to our joint mortgage even though I make all the payments 
• I've escaped an abusive relationship – and I'm now experiencing financial problems or need some breathing space while I get back on my feet

As with any complaint, we’ll expect you to work with your customer to get to the bottom of what happened, carry out a fair and impartial investigation , and – where appropriate – take steps to put things right.

Additionally domestic and economic abuse can have a significant impact on someone’s physical and mental health. It can be life changing and have a long lasting impact. It can be very difficult to talk about. So it’s important that   complaints about these issues, are handled promptly, sensitively, with understanding, care and respect.

In 2022, the charity, Surviving Economic Abuse, found that the victim-survivors of domestic abuse that it helped through its Financial Support Line had an average of seven debts each.

So, bear in mind that your customer may be speaking to several different companies or financial businesses to try and get their finances back on track.

Alongside resolving the complaint, you may also need to consider what support you can provide your customer moving forward. It might be necessary to think about whether you need to do things differently from your standard processes to support a customer who has experienced abuse.

If something’s gone wrong, ask questions sensitively to establish what the impact has been. This will vary from person to person and finding out will help you put things right.

The customer can bring their complaint to us if:

• you don’t reply within the time limits for responding to a complaint, or
• they disagree with your response.

We’ll check it’s something we can deal with, and if it is, we’ll investigate.

Read more about resolving complaints.

We’ll look at all the circumstances, including evidence that you and your customer have provided. We’ll consider what you knew, and what you ought reasonably to have known – including whether there were any triggers for further action or investigation.

We’ll consider the relevant:

• law and regulation
• regulator’s rules
• guidance and standards
• codes of practice, and
• what we consider to be good industry practice.

We’ll want to see that you treated your customer fairly under their particular circumstances.

As well as all the usual considerations which apply to any complaint, we’ll think about whether something different should have been put in place because of the circumstances of this case.

For example, we might look at what steps you took, or should have taken, to stop an abusive party finding out the new address of the survivor.

Or where a debt was run up as a result of an abusive relationship, we might think about whether you should have offered particular forbearance. And in some cases we might think about whether it’s fair to enforce it.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expects businesses to act to deliver good outcomes for customers, and to take particular care to ensure customers in vulnerable circumstances are treated fairly.

We’ll also think about the customer service and support you provided to avoid further harm, and the experience of your customer in getting their finances back on track after an abusive relationship. We’ll want to understand what actions you took, and how quickly you responded when you had the opportunity to put things right.

If we find you've treated your customer unfairly, or have made a mistake, we'll ask you to put things right. Our general approach is that your customer should be put back in the position they'd be in if the problem hadn’t happened. We may also ask you to apologise and compensate them for any distress and inconvenience they experienced as a result of the problem or mistake.

The exact details of how we’ll ask you to put things right will depend on the nature of the complaint, and how the customer lost out. We might ask you to put things right by:

• making changes to a product or account
• paying compensation for financial loss, or
• making changes to a credit file.

Or we could ask you to do things differently for this customer in the future.

Businesses should also learn from the outcomes we reach on cases to prevent further harm or similar complaints arising in the future.

Read more about understanding our approach to compensation.

If you want to talk informally about a complaint you’ve received, you can speak to our Business Support Hub. They give general information on how the Financial Ombudsman might look at a particular complaint. They also offer guidance on our rules and how we work.

Find out how to contact our Business Support Hub.

• The FCA’s guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers 
• The FCA’s Consumer Duty
• UK Finance’s financial abuse code of practice

If you’re a consumer looking for information about how we can help you with a complaint, you can read about complaints involving economic and domestic abuse and how we can help, in the consumer section of our site.

Or to make a complaint, read more about how to complain.