Complaints that involve 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 makes economic abuse part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse.

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

We’ll ask you to tell us about what has happened, and how you feel it’s affected your life or finances. We’ll also ask about what you think will help to resolve your complaint, as well as details about the business you’re unhappy with.

If you can, try to keep any relevant evidence that will help us understand what’s happened. This could be things like letters, statements and notes. And you can send copies of these rather than the originals if that helps.

We’ll be careful not to ask for more information than is needed to investigate each complaint. We’ll also request any information from the business which is relevant to the issues you’ve raised.

We know that in many cases, you may want to complain about a joint financial product, such as a joint bank account or mortgage. In these cases, we may still be able to help even if the product was taken out with another party who isn’t going to be part of the complaint, so this doesn’t have to be a barrier to getting in touch with us and seeing how we might be able to help.

We understand that experiencing 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. We also appreciate that it can be difficult to talk about what happened so we’ll do our best to handle complaints sensitively, and with care and respect.

We handle complaints with discretion, tact, and can accept evidence in confidence. When you bring a complaint to us, we’ll talk to you about our process and any evidence we may need to see, depending on what your complaint is about. We’ll always explain why we’re asking for information, and give you time to provide it.

Our role is to consider whether a consumer has been treated fairly and reasonably, taking into account:

• relevant law and regulation
• regulators’ rules
• guidance and standards
• codes of practice, and
• what we consider to be good industry practice at the time.

We’ll consider what you told us about what happened, and whether the business handled things as we’d expect.

Consumers in vulnerable circumstances may be at greater risk of harm if things go wrong or have additional needs.

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. It has identified four key drivers of vulnerability including:

• health
• low resilience to withstand financial or emotional shocks
• low knowledge or capability in handling financial issues, and
• life events – such as a relationship breakdown, domestic abuse, or economic control.

We’ll want to understand what the business knew or should have known about your circumstances and what support was or could have been put in place.

We’ll also consider what support they offered or put in place for you once they became aware of your circumstances to support you moving forward.

Before coming to us, the first thing you need to do is complain to the financial business about what’s happened. They should look into things and reply within eight weeks. If you’re not happy with their response, or they don’t get back to you within eight weeks, you can bring your complaint to us. We’ll check your case is something we can deal with, and if it is, we’ll investigate. 

Bringing a complaint to us is free and we try and keep things straightforward and informal. But if you’d rather not tell us some things direct – perhaps because they’re difficult to talk about – you can ask a friend, family member or someone like a support worker to help you with the complaint and talk to us on your behalf.

You can get in touch with us through our online complaint form or by phone. Importantly, we’ll agree with you how you’d prefer to be contacted and the best times to contact you.  

Find out more about how to complain and how to get in touch.

We publish general detail about when you can expect to hear from us as we deal with your complaint. If there’s something about you or your complaint which makes things particularly urgent, let us know when you get in touch. Once your complaint is with an investigator, they will talk to you in more specific detail about timing and next steps.

If we find you’ve been treated unfairly by a financial business, we’ll ask them to put things right. This usually involves putting you back in the position you’d be in if things hadn’t gone wrong. 

What this involves will depend on the nature and type of complaint. It might include, for example:

• asking the business to put things right by making changes to a product or account
• paying you compensation for financial loss, or
• making changes to a credit file.

We could tell it to do things differently for you in the future. And, where appropriate, we can also tell the business to apologise and pay compensation for distress or inconvenience it has caused.

Read more about our approach to compensation.

If you’re a financial business looking for information to help you resolve complaints, detailed information about our approach to complaints involving economic and domestic abuse can be found in the business section of our website.