Economic and domestic abuse

People who have experienced economic or domestic abuse contact us because they feel a financial business:

• could have done more to help or step in
• did something wrong which made their situation worse
• is sticking to standard processes and not taking their circumstances into account – for example, by pursuing a debt or refusing to make changes to a joint mortgage  
• has disclosed their new address, or other personal information, to an abusive ex-partner
• hasn’t understood that they need more time to sort out their financial situation

When dealing with these complaints, your firm should recognise the coercive element of economic abuse. For example, we see complaints where the perpetrator has:

• pressured someone into guaranteeing a loan or taking out new products which the perpetrator then uses and benefits from
• used the victim-survivor’s cards, accounts or credit without their consent or knowledge – or coerced them into letting them use them
• forced someone to sign over policies or investments, or putting all the joint debts in their name
• cancelled financial services like insurance, without informing the victim-survivor
• stopped payments to joint products, such as loans and mortgages leaving the victim-survivor to manage arrears

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 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

When dealing with these complaints, you should also consider the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s):

• Guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers.
• The Consumer Duty 

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.

If your firm is a signatory, you will also need to take into account the guidance set out in UK Finance’s Financial Abuse Code of Practice.

Domestic and economic abuse can have a significant impact on someone’s physical and mental health. The effects can last a long time and your customer may find it difficult to talk about.

So, it’s important that you handle complaints about these issues promptly, with understanding, care and respect. Ask questions – sensitively – to establish the impact on your customer of what they’ve experienced. And avoid asking your customer to repeat things to several colleagues.

Your customer's needs will vary from person to person, but finding out what those needs are will help you put things right. We 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.

Your customer may be speaking to several companies and other financial businesses to sort out their finances. Please bear this in mind and consider how you can help your customer move forward. You may need to go beyond your standard processes to support a customer who has experienced abuse.

For a picture of how we resolve disputes, consult our decisions database and complaints data.

Our decisions database holds all the final decisions we’ve published since 1 April 2013, anonymised to protect the identity of complainants but are based on real-life complaints.

Our complaints data will give you an idea of the volume of complaints we receive and resolve, and the proportion that we have upheld in consumers’ favour.

We usually look at complaints after you've had an opportunity to respond to them first. If your customer is unhappy with your decision – or you don't respond to them within the time limits – they can come to us. 

Each case is different, so what we require will vary. But we’ll look at the facts and evidence from both you and your customer, what we consider will usually include:

• relevant laws and regulations
• regulators’ rules in place when the event happened
• guidance, standards and codes of practice in place at the time of the event
• the customer service and support you provided to avoid further harm
• your customer’s experience of getting their finances back on track after an abusive relationship
• what actions you took, and how quickly you responded when you had the opportunity to put things right
• whether you treated your customer fairly under the circumstances or could have done something differently

We may ask also additional questions, or for specific information – depending on the complaint.

For example, we might look at what you did – or should have done – to stop an abusive party finding out your customer’s new address.

Or, where a debt results from an abusive relationship, we might look at whether you should have offered particular forbearance. And, in some cases, we might question whether it’s fair to pursue the customer for the debt.

We follow the FCA’s dispute resolution rules (DISP) and will take into account how you’ve tried to put things right. 

If we uphold a consumer's complaint, we'll tell you what you need to do to put things right. The details of this will depend on the complaint and how your customer lost out.

We might ask you to:

• apologise
• make changes to a product or account, for example by updating details on an account, considering alternative interest rates or financial products
• pay compensation for financial loss
• make changes to a credit file
• do things differently for this customer in the future
• compensate your customer for any distress or inconvenience they’ve experienced as a result of your actions.

Businesses and consumer advisers can contact our Business Support Hub on 020 7964 1400 for information on how we might look at a particular complaint, or for guidance on our rules and how we work.

We also work with businesses and other organisations to help prevent complaints.