Partner economic abuse

Information regarding partner economic abuse experienced since the age of 15 was obtained from men and women aged 18 years and over in the 2021-22 PSS.

The term 'partner' in the PSS is used to describe a person the respondent lives with, or lived with at some point, in a married or de facto relationship.

Current partner refers to a person the respondent currently lives with in a married or de facto relationship, at the time of the survey.

Previous partner refers to a person the respondent lived with at some point in a married or de facto relationship from whom they are now separated (but may or may not still be living with them). This includes a partner the respondent was:

• living with at the time of experiencing economic abuse
• no longer living with at the time of experiencing economic abuse.

Economic abuse occurs when a person is subjected to certain behaviours or actions that are aimed at preventing or controlling their access to economic resources, causing them emotional harm or fear. These behaviours are characterised in nature by their intent to manipulate, control, isolate or intimidate the person they are aimed at, and are generally repeated. Further details about the economic abuse behaviours asked about in the PSS are provided in the Methodology section below.

Respondents who had experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner were asked if they had also experienced any economic abuse behaviours by their most recent emotionally abusive previous partner. Therefore, for respondents who had experienced both previous partner emotional abuse and previous partner economic abuse, the most recent emotionally/economically abusive previous partner was the same. If a respondent had not experienced any economic abuse behaviours by their most recent emotionally abusive previous partner, they were not asked if they experienced economic abuse by any other previous partner.

If the respondent had not experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner, they were asked whether they experienced any of the economic abuse behaviours (not already asked about in the Partner Emotional Abuse topic) by any previous partner. If the respondent had experienced economic abuse by more than one previous partner, they were asked to focus on the most recent economically abusive previous partner when answering the economic abuse behaviour and timeframe questions.

The most recent economically abusive previous partner may or may not have been the same as the previous violent partner.

The Partner Economic Abuse topic was contained within the Partner Emotional Abuse topic of the survey and was designed to establish whether the respondent had experienced any economically manipulative or controlling behaviours by their current partner and/or by a previous partner since the age of 15. The set of questions were asked separately for economic abuse by a current partner and economic abuse by a previous partner (see Most recent economically abusive previous partner in the Definitions section above for how the previous partner is determined).

In the PSS, a person was considered to have experienced economic abuse if they reported they had experienced or been subjected to one or more of the following behaviours, causing emotional harm or fear:

• controlled or tried to control them from knowing about, having access to, or making decisions about household money
• controlled or tried to control them from working or earning money
• controlled or tried to control their income or assets
• controlled or tried to control them from studying
• deprived them of basic needs (e.g. food, shelter, sleep, assistive aids)
• damaged, destroyed or stole any of their property
• forced them to deposit income into their partner's bank account
• prevented them from opening or having them own bank account
• manipulated or forced them to cash in, sell or sign over any financial assets they own
• pressured or forced them to sign financial documents
• racked up significant debt on shared accounts, joint credit cards or in their name
• refused to contribute financially to them or the family, or would not provide enough money to cover living expenses
• refused to pay child support payments when required to (previous partner only)
• deliberately delayed property settlement after the relationship ended (previous partner only).

The definition of economic abuse excludes:

• cases where a spouse had restricted the respondent’s access to money, the car, or the internet because of the respondent’s substance abuse, gambling, or compulsive shopping issues, unless the respondent perceived that these restrictions caused them emotional harm or fear.

The data items and related output categories for this topic are contained within the SPS Level – Economic Abuse tab in the data item list available under Downloads.

Partner economic abuse data can be used to examine:

• the prevalence of partner economic abuse
• the types of economically abusive behaviours experienced by a current partner and most recent economically abusive previous partner.

Partner economic abuse data cannot be used to examine:

• the prevalence of economic abuse by persons other than a partner the respondent lives or lived with. For example, information about economic abuse by a family member or an intimate partner that the respondent never lived with (boyfriend or girlfriend) is not collected in the PSS.
• the prevalence of specific economic abuse behaviours, as this information is only collected for the current economically abusive partner and most recent economically abusive previous partner.

Points to be considered when using and interpreting data for this topic include the following:

• Whether or not the economic abuse amounted to a criminal offence cannot be determined from the information collected.
• The PSS only asked respondents about selected economic abuse behaviours, and therefore may not capture all forms of economic abuse that exist.
• The recognition and identification of any behaviour as economically abusive is based on the respondent’s subjective beliefs. Individual differences in thresholds for what constitutes manipulative/controlling/isolating/intimidating behaviour resulting in fear or emotional harm will affect how respondents answer the questions.
• Conceptually it is invalid to add together data about the characteristics for current and previous partner economic abuse, as the characteristics of partner economic abuse could differ depending on the type of partner. This would also double count all persons who have experienced economic abuse by both a current and previous partner.
• Economic abuse by a previous partner may have occurred during and/or after the relationship ended.
• Previous partner economic abuse data refers to the most recent economically abusive previous partner and is therefore not necessarily representative of all previous partner economic abuse. Care should be taken in the way this data is interpreted and reported.
• Respondents who had not experienced economic abuse by their most recent emotionally abusive previous partner were not subsequently asked if they had experienced economic abuse by a different previous partner.
• Respondents who had experienced economic abuse by their most recent emotionally abusive previous partner were not asked if they had experienced economic abuse more recently by a different previous partner.

Economic abuse as a distinct concept and topic was first introduced in the 2021-22 PSS. However, some of the economic abuse behaviours were collected as part of the emotional abuse topic, which has been running in the PSS since 2005, including:

• controlled or tried to control them from knowing about, having access to or making decisions about household money
• controlled or tried to control them from working or earning money
• controlled or tried to control their income or assets
• controlled or tried to control them from studying
• controlled or tried to control them from studying
• damaged, destroyed or stole any of their property.

New economic abuse behaviours that were added in 2021-22, include:

• forced them to deposit income into their partner's bank account
• prevented them from opening or having their own bank account
• manipulated or forced them to cash in, sell or sign over any financial assets they own
• pressured or forced them to sign financial documents
• racked up significant debt on shared accounts, joint credit cards or in their name
• refused to contribute financially to them or the family, or would not provide enough money to cover living expenses
• refused to pay child support payments when required to (previous partner only).

While specific behaviours that are common to the 2021-22 PSS and earlier versions of the survey can be compared, there are no comparable estimates of economic abuse prevalence prior to 2021-22.