What’s financial abuse and what are the warning signs?

Abuse can take many different forms. One that may be less easily visible but still seriously damaging is financial abuse. This occurs when someone wields money and access to it as a form of control over someone else. It can look like aggressively monitoring spending, forcing reliance on them for cash, withholding access to funds or even actively sabotaging employment opportunities or financial standing.

Financial abuse is unfortunately not so uncommon — research indicates that it occurs...