UNSW Sydney experts explain what financial abuse is, the warning signs to watch for, and the new Tax Office protections in place for vulnerable people.
Financial abuse is a common and often hidden type of abuse within family and domestic violence, opens in a new window, characterised by behaviours that control, restrict, or hide money and financial information, frequently involving a person’s bank accounts, credit cards, tax filings, and business reporting systems.
Financial abuse is a very particular subset of economic abuse. It’s an effective form of coercive control that restricts a person’s financial autonomy, decision-making capacity, and access to their own funds, and it’s estimated to cost the economy nearly $11 billion a year, opens in a new window and affect more than 2.4 million Australians.