In a lot of cases, financial abuse can manifest as the perpetrator refusing to allow their victim to go to work or keep a job. Likewise, other manifestations of financial abuse are as follows:
- Intentional acts meant to prompt the victim’s job termination
- Maxing out/running up credit card (or other) debt in their name
- Taking out loans in their name
- Refinancing loans or mortgages without permission
- Destroying bank cards
- Changing passwords on shared accounts that the victim relies upon to access funds
- Forcing a victim to work only for the perpetrator to then collect the victim’s earnings
- Getting rid of/trashing a victim’s living essentials (medicine, clothes, hygienic products, etc.)
- Controlling access to funds and demanding proof of how every penny was spent
In most cases of financial abuse, the perpetrator primarily maintains full access to all funds. They may also become threatening or violent if the abused individual seeks to regain control over their finances or access money in a different manner.
Intentional sabotage
Perpetrators of domestic violence know that without access to money, their victims will have a much harder time leaving any abusive situation. Abusers also tend to hold this over their victims’ heads, cruelly telling them they have nowhere else to go.
