Sam Smethers: Reforming separation to protect survivors of economic abuse

Sam Smethers highlights a pivotal moment for reforming how the family justice system handles separation, particularly for survivors of economic abuse. Economic abuse—where one partner controls, exploits, or sabotages the other's financial resources—frequently escalates when relationships end, leaving survivors without access to housing, legal representation, or basic necessities. For local authorities, understanding these dynamics is essential when supporting families through early help and safeguarding pathways, ensuring that financial control does not become a barrier to safety. The proposed changes to separation and divorce proceedings aim to address the power imbalances that currently disadvantage those experiencing economic coercion. By ensuring that financial abuse is properly recognised and mitigated during child arrangement and financial settlement processes, councils can prevent vulnerable families from slipping into crisis. This aligns with broader family support strategies that prioritise financial stability and safety, helping parents to maintain tenancies and meet their children's needs during difficult transitions. Lead Members should consider how their services currently identify and respond to economic abuse within family breakdown. Training frontline staff to recognise signs of financial control, and ensuring robust referral pathways to debt advice, housing support, and legal aid, can help realise this opportunity to make separation genuinely safer. Early intervention that addresses economic injustice not only protects survivors but also reduces downstream pressure on children's social care and housing services.