Insurance products are being used to control and financially harm domestic abuse survivors, with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) now publishing guidance to help firms recognise and respond to these tactics. The guides, launched in Parliament, were developed alongside specialist charities Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) and the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA).
How insurance used to control abuse survivors actually works in practice
Economic abuse is a form of domestic abuse. It can involve controlling another person’s finances, their assets, or their access to income. Insurance products sit squarely within that territory, and the new guidance sets out in detail the specific ways they can be turned against a victim-survivor.
A perpetrator may cancel or amend home, motor, health, protection or mortgage-related cover without the victim-survivor’s knowledge, leaving them exposed to loss or debt precisely when they need to claim. An abuser can redirect insurance claim payments into their own account, or pressure a victim-survivor into making pension withdrawals. After a separation, an abuser may remain named on a joint policy and use that position to block the other person from accessing information, transferring cover or making any changes.
Contact details can be changed, post intercepted, and online account access controlled so that renewal notices, policy documents and claim updates never reach the person being abused. Where insurers require repeated evidence or consent across different teams, that process itself can become a barrier, forcing a victim-survivor to re-engage with their abuser or to explain the abuse multiple times. In some cases, a joint life policy may create a direct financial motive for a perpetrator to cause serious physical harm.
Sam Smethers, chief executive of Surviving Economic Abuse, said: ‘Insurance products are there to protect us, but in the hands of a perpetrator they are used to cause real harm and in some cases this can be life-threatening.’ She called on firms to go beyond minimum regulatory requirements by embedding good practice, strengthening staff training and, critically, designing products that close down opportunities for abuse rather than leaving power in the abuser’s hands.
Surviving Economic Abuse estimates that around one in six women in the UK has experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner. That figure underlines why the ABI describes the guides as part of wider efforts to improve outcomes for vulnerable customers, sitting within the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy.
What the new guides ask of insurers
The customer-facing guide asks firms to extend domestic abuse training well beyond frontline staff. Product teams, underwriters, operations, risk and compliance functions, and senior leadership should all receive training covering not just how to handle a difficult conversation, but how to spot account activity that signals abuse and how insurance products themselves can be weaponised.
A second guide, developed in partnership with EIDA, focuses on how firms can support their own employees who are experiencing domestic abuse. It notes that a workplace can feel like the only safe space an employee has, but that the effects of abuse, lateness, unplanned absences, performance difficulties, harassment by phone or in person, can put a job at risk if an employer does not know what is happening.
Hannah Gurga, ABI director general, said the guides would help firms ‘recognise the signs of economic and domestic abuse, respond with care and give customers and employees the support they need.’ Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, added: ‘Abusers weaponise anything they can, including insurance, to maintain control over victims, trapping victims in policies they want to leave or cancelling the policies they depend on.’
James Dipple-Johnstone, chief ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), said cases brought to the FOS show that when firms fail to recognise economic abuse or respond with sensitivity, people can be left ‘feeling isolated, unsupported, and less able to manage their finances safely.’ He said the guidance gives firms ‘practical steps to identify vulnerability earlier.’
Susan Bright, chief executive of EIDA, whose membership covers more than 2,000 employers, said she was pleased by the ABI’s leadership in making the guidance available to the wider industry. Helen Bellamy, customer inclusion lead at wealth manager Quilter, described the guidance as ‘hugely useful’ because it gives firms practical support to identify signs of abuse and enable safe disclosure.
The guides are available now, following their launch at Parliament on Wednesday. Firms are urged to treat them as a foundation for product redesign, not simply a checklist for customer-service teams.
