The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has published two new guides aimed at helping insurance and pension firms better identify and respond to economic and domestic abuse, developed with charities Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) and the Employers' Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA).
The guides were launched in Parliament, with backing from HM Treasury as part of the government's Financial Inclusion Strategy.
Economic abuse is a form of domestic abuse involving someone controlling a partner or former partner's access to money, assets and other economic resources. The guidance sets out how this plays out specifically through insurance and pension products: perpetrators may redirect insurance claim payments, force victim-survivors to make pension withdrawals, or cancel or amend home, motor, health, protection or mortgage-related cover without the other person's knowledge, leaving them exposed to loss or debt at the point they need to claim. According to SEA, one in six women in the UK has experienced economic abuse from a current or former partner.
Developed with SEA, A guide to supporting customers experiencing economic abuse brings together regulatory expectations and practical guidance to help firms identify risk, enable safe disclosure, and design customer journeys, communications and controls with economic abuse in mind.
For joint critical illness and medical cover specifically, the guidance called on providers to ensure a customer isn't agreeing to cover that increases their dependence on another person. It recommended sending correspondence about appointments, authorisations or treatment pathways separately to each person named on a joint policy, rather than to a single household contact, a design change intended to prevent one partner from controlling what the other knows about their own cover.
The ABI has also published a guide to supporting employees experiencing domestic abuse, developed with EIDA.
The guide set out practical examples of how employers can build supportive workplace environments, equip managers to respond appropriately, and help colleagues access specialist support. It also pointed to training and referral pathways as concrete steps firms can take.
Home Office data from 2019 estimated that domestic abuse costs businesses in England £17 billion annually, while separate Office for National Statistics figures show 12.5 million adults have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16.
Hannah Gurga, ABI director general, said feeling safe and in control of one's own life is something everyone should be able to expect, and that the guides will help insurance and pension firms recognise the signs of economic and domestic abuse and respond with care.
Lucy Rigby, economic secretary to the Treasury, said economic abuse can devastate lives, with abusers weaponising anything they can, including insurance, to maintain control over victims by trapping them in policies they want to leave or cancelling policies they depend on. She said the guidance forms part of the government's Financial Inclusion Strategy to ensure victim-survivors get the protection they deserve.
Sam Smethers, chief executive of Surviving Economic Abuse, said insurance products exist to protect people but can be used by a perpetrator to cause real harm, in some cases life-threatening. She said the industry is beginning to see change but urged firms to go beyond regulatory requirements by strengthening staff training and designing products and services that close down opportunities for abuse rather than leaving all the power with the abuser.
Susan Bright, chief executive of EIDA, welcomed the ABI's leadership in developing the guidance, saying employers are a crucial part of the whole-of-society response to domestic abuse, and that EIDA's work with more than 2,000 employer members shows the real difference a domestic abuse-aware employer can make.
James Dipple-Johnstone, chief ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, separately welcomed the guidance, saying economic abuse can have a devastating and lasting effect on people's lives and that financial services firms have an important role in recognising these circumstances and responding appropriately.
What distinguishes this guidance from a general statement of good intent is its specificity about how insurance products themselves can be turned into tools of control, redirected claims payments, forced pension withdrawals, unilateral policy cancellations, and household correspondence that assumes a single point of contact rather than two individuals with independent interests in the same policy.
For firms, the practical test will be whether product design and claims processes actually change as a result, separate correspondence on joint policies, safe disclosure routes, staff trained to recognise warning signs, rather than the guidance remaining a reference document consulted only after a case has already caused harm.
