How ombudsman schemes can help victim-survivors of domestic and economic abuse

Domestic abuse affects the lives of one in five adults in the UK, often leaving them with issues to resolve around their finances, housing or legal situation. So how can ombudsman schemes equip themselves to support those who come to them for help in the aftermath of domestic abuse?

Domestic abuse can impact anyone, at any time, regardless of their gender, sex, race, ethnicity or age.

One in five adults experience domestic abuse. This equates to one in four women and one in six men. So, many of us will have experienced abuse or interact with people who have. 

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime, and a perpetrator's actions can have a long-lasting impact on the people they abuse and their loved ones.  The charity, Surviving Economic Abuse, says that 95% of domestic abuse cases involve economic abuse.

Economic abuse is when the perpetrator limits someone’s access to money and resources. It’s a tactic used by perpetrators to control the victim-survivor and stop them from leaving or moving on from an abusive situation.

Our key areas of focus

Every year we resolve over 1,000 complaints from victim-survivors of domestic and economic abuse and play a critical role in helping them get back control of their finances. To ensure we resolve things fairly for victim-survivors, we have three key areas of focus.

As an ombudsman scheme, it’s key that we understand the wider circumstances of an individual's complaint. So, we need to take into account both the context and the impact of the abuse. 

We also encourage businesses to learn from our decisions, so that we can work collectively to improve outcomes for victim-survivors. That way, we can learn from each other and develop best practice to support survivors.

And, since 2019, we’ve had a dedicated group of colleagues to oversee complaints that involve domestic and economic abuse. Five years on, we’re reflecting on the progress we’ve made. 

Learning from specialist organisations and lived experiences of customers and colleagues 

Key to developing our awareness and understanding of abuse – and the unique challenges victim-survivors face – have been the relationships we’ve developed with specialist organisations. 

This has helped us understand how abuse impacts different groups and how perpetrators change their tactics over time.

We’ve also learnt a lot from colleagues who have shared lived experience of abuse, and from what our customers have told us. These personal experiences have informed our thinking around training and support. 

Building awareness, knowledge and support

Complaints involving domestic and economic abuse are often complex and challenging to investigate.

We’ve used online training sessions, e-learning and knowledge tools, to help colleagues identify abuse and understand context so that they can resolve a complaint fairly. Alongside this, specialist teams of ombudsmen and investigators provide deskside coaching and support to colleagues so that they can handle cases with care, resolve them fairly and help firms learn from the decisions we make. 

Developing soft skills for hard topics

The impacts of domestic abuse can be psychological, economic, emotional, and physical. It’s essential that we show compassion and understanding and provide a safe space for survivors to share whatever they feel comfortable telling us. 

We’re all individuals. We all respond to situations differently and need different things. 

The training and tools we’ve given colleagues enable them to tailor the service they provide to each individual, rather than having to make assumptions about the support people need. 

We’re also continually looking for ways to make our service more accessible, so customers can navigate our processes more easily and safely.

Support for colleagues 

It can be upsetting and quite challenging to work on cases that involve domestic and economic abuse. It’s often distressing to hear about the abuse people have experienced, especially as some colleagues may have been directly affected by these issues.

We offer several channels of support to colleagues, which are outlined in our Domestic Abuse Support Guidelines. 

It’s critical that colleagues know they can get the support they need from their manager. So we run sessions for managers to enable them to help their team with challenging situations – emphasising the importance of aftercare, checking in and creating an environment where problems are shared. 

On top of the wider support, we offer as part of our benefits package, for caseworkers dealing with complaints that involve domestic and economic abuse, we provide a dedicated team of mental health first aiders and safeguarding leads. 

Sharing our insight 

We have a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in the financial sector and a responsibility to share what we see. We do this:

• through guidance on our website – where we publish our approach and case studies
• by sharing insights with the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, and,
• by sharing what we see with specialist organisations to help inform the work they do.

Many firms are concerned about the impact of abuse on their customers and want to support them, and they’ve used our insight to make improvements. 

Our work continues 

We’re proud of the work we do. We achieve some life-changing outcomes for our customers, but there’s still so much more to do. Collective action is essential to improve outcomes for victim-survivors. 

As ombudsman schemes, we have a vital role to push that action forward in each of our sectors.