The child support system should be overhauled so that parents who fail to pay can be chased by the Australian Taxation Office for the debt, and insurers and superannuation companies should introduce safeguards to stop perpetrators of domestic violence profiting financially from the deaths of their victims, a parliamentary committee has recommended.
The 61 recommendations, tabled by the parliamentary joint standing committee on corporations and financial services, would see sweeping reforms of the banking, superannuation, insurance, taxation, child support and legal systems, in a bid to stamp out financial abuse.
Sixteen per cent of women and nearly 8% of men in Australia will suffer from partner economic abuse in their lifetimes, with the financial toll of financial abuse on victims estimated at $5.7bn annually.
Senator Deborah O’Neill, the chair of the committee, described financial abuse as “a quiet but raging epidemic that ruins the lives of those it affects” and said she and the committee had been “truly shocked by much of the evidence we received”.
Among the issues highlighted in the report was the way the child support system was “weaponised” by perpetrators to leave women and children in poverty. Nearly 1 million children are entitled to support through the child support system, which is separated into the government collection system and a private collection system.
An estimated $1.7bn is owed to children in the government system, according to Single Mother Families Australia, while 70% of women in the private collection system do not receive their entitled payment, the committee estimated.
The committee heard evidence from women owed tens of thousands of dollars, and some hundreds of thousands, in unpaid child support from partners. Some 88% of child support payments are made to mothers.
“This is a root cause of poverty for too many women and children,” O’Neill said.
This was the experience of Tammy Casselson, who said she was in an abusive and coercively controlled relationship with her husband for decades.
“It did get much worse when I left the relationship,” she said.
Casselson alleged her ex-husband would threaten to hurt her and the children, would show up at their home shouting threats and would use post-separation financial abuse as a way of maintaining control over her. He died by suicide last year.
For the first three or four years after separation, Casselson alleged that her ex did not submit tax returns and so was not required to pay child support.
She said she was too frightened of him to chase him for the money. “I just didn’t want to rock the boat with him. I was so scared.”
Eventually she was able to prove he had an income, but he was assessed as only needing to pay $443 a year – or just $36.92 a month. Even this money, she said, he often failed to pay. Casselson alleged he died owing her thousands in unpaid child support.
Casselson said that while she was educated and had a job, the financial impact of the relationship and post-separation abuse was enormous.
“There’s no way you can save anything. I’ve been in community housing. It’s been hard. It’s been very, very hard for my children. I’m such a proud person to have to take money from people, to have to, at one stage, take food. It’s so much shame. And … it’s just ridiculous that we as the victims feel shame when … it should be on the perpetrators.”
In Australia, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Indigenous communities, and women with disabilities can be at higher risk of financial abuse.
“Financial abuse traps Aboriginal women escaping family violence in a cycle of extreme poverty,” said Antoinette Braybrook, the CEO of Djirra.
“Djirra has had a recent increase of clients to our service reporting that their current or former partner has stolen their identity to apply for loans, credit cards, or phone plans. Police have not taken this seriously and not investigated it properly … Djirra supports the recommendation that financial providers work with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to do better, because our women deserve better.”
The recommendations tabled on Thursday would see the responsibility for child support collections moved to the tax office and any unpaid child support would be raised as a tax debt against the parent who had failed to pay, while the parent who was owed support would be given a refundable tax credit for the amount.
Other recommendations included that the government undertake a review of the Covid-19 early release of super scheme, to assess the cases of people who may have withdrawn superannuation under coercion; requiring banks to be satisfied a borrower is not experiencing financial abuse before approving loans; changes to stop perpetrators benefiting financially after the death of their victim; and amending insurance legislation so that someone does not lose insurance protection if the damage to property was inflicted deliberately by their partner.
“I’m delighted to be honest, it’s more wide-ranging than we were expecting,” said Rebecca Glenn, the founder and CEO of the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety, which provided evidence to the committee.
“We’ve been really impressed by the committee’s commitment to listening and understanding these issues … This is not easy stuff, and they haven’t shied away from that, and that’s what’s so heartening really.”
Among the recommendations that Glenn was particularly pleased to see was proposed penalties for lawyers, accountants and financial advisers who undertake inappropriate actions on behalf of clients perpetrating financial abuse, and a mechanism for there to be ongoing consultation with victim-survivors to make sure the reforms that are implemented are actually making a difference on the ground.
Jasmine Opdam, the national coordination of the Economic Abuse Reference Group, said the report was “encouraging” and included “practical solutions, informed by lived experience, that put the safety of victim survivors first.
“Now we need government agencies and the financial services sector to come together and commit to tangible actions to implement these recommendations.”
• In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org
