The Improvement Service coordinates the National Violence Against Women Network which aims to support local Violence Against Women Partnerships to adopt a multi-agency approach to implementing Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. Equally Safe (2023), recognises that “financial abuse is used by perpetrators as a way to control women which, in turn, can raise women’s risk of further violence, abuse, and exploitation.”
Financially Included are part of the National Violence Against Women Network, and their Project Manager Amber Cully has written a guest blog highlighting the economic impact of violence against women and girls and demonstrating multi-agency working to address the issue.
For too long now, violence against women and girls in all forms has remained ingrained in our society with very little reduction in annual statistics. Whilst we are pleased to see the commitment of the Scottish Government and COSLA to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the refreshed Equally Safe strategy, the economic impact and the link between poverty and VAWG needs urgent investment and a strategy to increase awareness of the issue.
Our ask is that policymakers and stakeholders take the time to understand the complex challenge of quantifying and addressing these less visible impacts of VAWG and make urgent investment into research and solutions.
Financially Included is a partnership project between GEMAP Scotland and The Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership (GVAWP), funded by the Scottish Government’s Delivery Equally Safe (DES) fund.
Established in Jan 2022, the Financially included project, the first of its kind in Scotland, began the journey to:
- Provide a trauma-informed specialist welfare rights and debt advice service
- Coproduce training and tools on economic abuse
- Upskill workforces to provide earlier identification and more robust responses
- Use our learning to raise awareness of economic abuse and the economic impact of all forms of male violence against women and girls.
Initially, the focus was on tackling economic and financial abuse, expecting to support women who had fled/or were planning to exit coercive relationships where domestic abuse was the form of gender-based violence. However, as we engaged with the women’s sector and opened for referrals, it became clear that the issue was much broader.
Victims of other forms of VAWG were also finding their economic ability to thrive hindered by their traumatic life events. For example, women who had been raped were unable to work for long periods due to the physical or mental health consequences, and women who had been victims of female genital mutilation were unable to work due to severe bowel and bladder injuries. This led us to shift from using the term "tackling economic abuse in Scotland" to "tackling the economic impact of all forms of male violence against women and girls in Scotland."
The Cost of Economic Abuse
Take a moment to think how much male violence against women and girls costs the public purse in Scotland.
You will immediately consider services such as health, police, justice, women’s aid and other women’s support services and helplines which will amount to millions. But as you start to dig deeper, we start to uncover and consider the indirect costs.
Victims may struggle to maintain steady employment, experience disruptions in their career trajectories, or find themselves unable to fully participate in the economic sphere due to the trauma and aftermath of violent incidents. This, in turn, can lead to reduced earnings, limited opportunities for advancement, and an overall dampening of economic growth and prosperity. Beyond the individual level, the macroeconomic implications of violence against women can be profound. When a substantial portion of the workforce is impacted by such issues, the resulting loss of human capital and economic potential can reverberate through entire communities, regions, and even national economies.
On an individual level for the victim survivor, these non-physical costs and recovery can look like long term debt, poor credit ratings, struggling to get out of homelessness, rebuilding their lives and low household income. We cannot forget the impact on their children. In societies effort to tackle child poverty, the economic impact of VAWG much be considered.
Our Advice Service
Financially Included has supported over 360 individual women in Glasgow with benefits and debt advice. Through our intervention we have achieved financial gains for these women of over £1.2m, made up of benefit gains, charity grants and debt write offs.
The women we work with come from a huge variety of backgrounds but some of the figures that stand out are;
- Over 30% lack secure housing
- An average 45% of the women identify as being from black and minority ethnic backgrounds
- Over 70% are from the lowest income brackets
- 65% Identify as having a health condition or disability
The services offered by Financially Included have developed in response to our desire to provide a holistic, trauma-informed, flexible and person centred, responsive approach. A trauma-informed, specialist money advice service is a critical resource for individuals who have experienced traumatic events or situations that have had a significant impact on their financial well-being. This means being ready to listen when the woman are ready to talk. Being flexible about where and when the interventions take place, understanding their trauma and working in partnership with other services. By taking a comprehensive, trauma-informed approach, our service aims to help individuals regain financial stability and resilience, ultimately improving their overall well-being and quality of life.
Financially Included coproduced training on economic abuse with the women’s sector and advice sector in Glasgow and have spent the last year upskilling almost 150 frontline workers on the dynamics and impacts of economic abuse, which is an integral part of domestic abuse. Economic abuse involves behaviours that control a victim's ability to acquire, use, or maintain economic resources, threatening their financial security and independence.
By educating frontline professionals on the complexities of economic abuse, we empower them to better identify, understand, and respond to this insidious form of intimate partner violence. Equipping these key frontline personnel with knowledge and strategies to address economic abuse enables them to provide more comprehensive support and resources to survivors, helping to tackle the cycle of domestic abuse and financial entrapment.
Moving Forward
As we look to the future of our project, we want to make lasting change for victim survivors.
Our work has shown that the burden of repaying debt can limit women’s ability to achieve financial independence, secure stable housing, or access essential services. Whilst our team has had outstanding results working with private financial institutions in having debt written off and credit ratings repaired, public sector debt is an ongoing challenge. Addressing the issue of public sector debt for victims of economic abuse requires a multi-faceted approach. In the coming year we will push forward to raise the issue with decision makers and influence policy decisions. The impact of the collection of public sector debt must be view with a gendered lens.
Financially Included is working towards becoming Scotland’s centre for excellence on economic abuse and the economic impact of all forms of male violence against women and girls. To allow us to do this we need to:
- Secure funds for expansion
- Continue to work in close partnership with other organisations
- Put women’s voices at the centre of the future design of the service
- Learn how geographical differences in Scotland differs for victims
- Continue to raise awareness of the issue
- Research and campaign on presenting and emerging themes
- Educate young people
Uniting to share learning and resources is vital to making comprehensive and sustainable change, as set out in the Equally Safe strategy and partnership and collaborative working across the National Violence Against Women Network will be key to our future success.
You can find out more about the National Violence Against Women Network here and about the work of Financially Included here. If you would like to get in touch with Financially Included, please contact them via email at mailto:financiallyincluded@gemap.co.uk