Financial wellbeing and family violence

Family violence is disturbingly common in Australia and affects all cultures and communities in our society.

It’s not always easy to recognise victim-survivors of abuse but they are people we have contact with every day, within families, workplaces and neighbourhoods.

Sadly, women are impacted the most, with nearly a third of females having experienced emotional abuse or physical violence in relationships compared with 16.4 per cent of men, according to the MoneyMinded Impact Report 2016.

In many cases, a person may not realise they’re experiencing family violence with the obvious signs extending beyond physical and emotional abuse.

Financial abuse is a form of family violence and is more than just a disagreement over money. It’s when someone takes control of your money, doesn’t allow you to have money to survive on, forces you to hand over your money and doesn’t let you have a say in how it is spent.

ANZ is working with our long-standing community partner Berry Street to provide education and support to victim-survivors to help them recognise their strengths and develop the skills to improve their financial wellbeing.

Education for prevention and recovery

Our flagship adult financial education program MoneyMinded helps Australians build their financial knowledge and confidence so they can make informed decisions about how to manage money.

In 2016 we introduced an extension of MoneyMinded designed specifically for people in the community experiencing family violence.

Covering topics such as warning signs of financial abuse, tackling debt and protecting your future, the MoneyMinded for family violence program is an education tool for family violence specialists and sector workers who support victim-survivors of family violence.

The MoneyMinded for family violence program is framed around recognising the skills, experiences and capabilities of victim-survivors and supporting them to build on these attributes with financial knowledge to determine their own future.

“Family violence in the form of financial abuse can have a devastating and lasting impact on the lives of victim-survivors,” says Michael Perusco, CEO Berry Street. “Financial education provides an important building block in recovery for individuals and families and we are delighted to partner with ANZ to bring the MoneyMinded for family violence program to support the work of professionals in the sector.”

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Extending our support

Over the past 18 months Berry Street and ANZ have made enhancements to the MoneyMinded program addressing family violence while strengthening our support to Australians experiencing family violence to help them make better decisions about their money.

The refreshed program aims to make it easier for family violence community professionals to access, use and customise financial education for their clients and to expand the reach of the program.

The program now includes a new range of visual resources, prompt cards, animations and interactive handouts, supporting community professionals to talk about financial abuse with their clients in accessible ways.

Janet, one of Berry Street’s trainers, has an extensive history of working to support clients’ financial wellbeing and delivers the program to family violence specialists across Australia.

Commenting on the recent program enhancements, she says “the refreshed program will provide valuable financial education resources for family violence specialists to use with their clients. The tailored content supports the process of recovering control and building financial wellbeing for victim-survivors.”

Resources can be accessed online by MoneyMinded for family violence coaches and session plans can be customised for individuals and families using a new session plan tool.