15/05/2026
A devastating yet mobilising piece of work by Dr Jenn Glinski on behalf of Scottish Women's Aid, Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit and Trading Standards Scotland.
Seeing economic and financial abuse, coerced debt and violence against women discussed on the evening news last night was incredible. And long overdue.
Women who took part in the study called for action on issues around awareness raising, early intervention, support and systemic change, including:
● Accessible information sharing on economic abuse and coerced debt.
● Early, trauma-informed intervention to prevent debts escalating.
● Specialist financial abuse support across key services.
● Practical support to address coerced debt.
● Mandatory training on economic abuse across key private, public and third sector services.
And perhaps what struck a chord the most: shifting the responsibility of coerced debt from survivors onto perpetrators.
Here’s how we’re tackling those points:
● Providing specialist, trauma-informed debt advice to women, with a focus on writing off coerced debt and repairing credit files. We have supported more than 700 women in Glasgow so far.
● Delivering expert Responding to Economic Abuse training across private, public and third sectors including money and debt advice, police, employability, housing, health and education.
● Fighting for systemic change through contribution to research and building campaigns on the barriers women in our service face.
We know the road to recovery for women can feel long and so it is our privilege to support women in Scotland find solutions to debt they were coerced into taking, to rebuild their independent lives and thrive.
Thank you Scottish Women's Aid, and Trading Standards Scotland for shining a light on the lived experience of women with coerced debt. Let's not let this conversation end here.
If you are a woman in Scotland struggling with debt taken out in your name or that you were forced to take by your partner but did not benefit from, contact on 0343 841 0132 or via the webchat at www.financiallyincluded.co.uk and we can help.
Financially Included – tackling economic abuse in Scotland 💜
https://womensaid.scot/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/SWA-Coerced-Debt-Report-Summary-2026.pdf
