New research has uncovered a hidden crisis affecting millions of children across the United Kingdom, revealing the devastating impact of economic abuse within families.
The Scale of the Crisis
A study commissioned by the charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) has found that almost 4 million children in the UK are suffering the consequences of economic abuse. The data shows that over the past year, 27% of mothers with children under 18 experienced behaviours classified as economic abuse, where a current or former partner exerts control over the family's finances.
How Perpetrators Operate
The research details the insidious methods used by abusers to maintain control and cause harm. These tactics extend beyond the primary victim to directly target children's wellbeing and security.
Perpetrators frequently stop mothers from accessing joint bank accounts or vital child benefit payments. In a particularly cruel act, one in six women who suffered economic abuse reported that a partner had stolen money directly from their child, such as birthday cash or saved pocket money.
Furthermore, a third of women abused by a former partner stated their ex refused to pay child maintenance, or paid it unreliably, despite having the means to do so. One mother, quoted by the charity, recalled: “My ex would stop maintenance payments right before Christmas.”
Urgent Calls for Government Action
The charity's chief executive, Sam Smethers, condemned the findings, stating: “Economic abuse is a dangerous form of coercive control and children are being harmed by it every day. Our research shows that perpetrators are stealing children’s pocket money, stopping mums accessing child benefit, and refusing to pay child support.”
SEA is urgently calling on the government to publish its long-delayed Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and to prioritise tackling economic abuse within it. They demand authorities close legal loopholes that allow abusers to manipulate systems like the child maintenance service to inflict further harm.
Jess Phillips, the government’s minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, responded: “Tackling economic abuse will be integral to achieving our goal of halving violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will continue to ensure children and young people are at the heart of this ambition.”
The charity also highlighted that mothers are three times more likely to be victims of economic abuse than women without children, underscoring how parenthood can be exploited as a tool for coercive control. This study marks the first formal research by SEA specifically examining the impact on young people, moving the conversation beyond physical harm to include financial and psychological abuse.
