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Methodology and terminology

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Please note: the following contains details of domestic abuse, including violence, and mentions of suicidal ideation, self-harm and suicide attempts, which some readers may find distressing.

Guide to terminology

  Economic abuse: 

A form of domestic abuse when a perpetrator controls a victim-survivors’ money and economic resources. This may include sabotaging a victim-survivor’s ability to earn an income or destroying their belongings, limiting how they use their money or stopping them from accessing food or transport, and taking out loans in their name or refusing to pay their agreed share of the household bills. It is defined as a form of abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act (2021) and criminalised under the controlling or coercive behaviour offence in the Serious Crime Act (2015).

  Coerced debt: 

Coerced debt is a form of economic abuse, which is set out in the statutory definition of domestic abuse within the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Coerced debt includes any nonconsensual financial transaction where an abuser causes a victim-survivor to be liable for a debt, either jointly or in their sole name. This includes an abuser taking out a debt in a victim-survivor's name without their consent or knowledge, giving a victim-survivor incorrect information to make them take on a debt, forcing a victim-survivor to take on a debt through the threat or fear of harm, or through other means, such as forcing the victim-survivor to rely on debt to cover essentials because the abuser has restricted their access to money.

  Victim-survivor:

We use the term victim-survivor to refer to people both in the general sense who have experienced coerced debt and/or economic abuse, as well as those survey respondents who indicated that they had experienced coerced debt, but we recognise that this latter group may not identify as such. We hope this encapsulates heterogenous and not neatly defined experiences of these individuals.

  Economic justice:

A financial or legal remedy that supports a victim-survivor to achieve economic safety and stability, so they do not have to pay the price for the abuser’s behaviour. This could include things like forbearance, debt write-off, and credit file restoration.

How we conducted this research

This research is based on nationally representative polling we commissioned YouGov to conduct. Fieldwork took place between 7th - 23rd November 2025, with a total sample size of 569 adults who in previous omnibus surveys had indicated that they had experienced at least one indicator of coerced debt. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+). The survey questions and summary data are available here.

The survey has been conducted using an online interview administered members of the YouGov Plc GB panel of 400,000+ individuals who have agreed to take part in surveys. An email was sent to panellists selected at random from the base sample according to the sample definition, inviting them to take part in the survey and providing a link to the survey. YouGov Plc normally achieves a response rate of approximately 20% dependent upon the subject matter, complexity and length of the questionnaire. The responding sample is weighted to the profile of the sample definition to provide a representative reporting sample. The profile is normally derived from census data or, if not available from the census, from industry accepted data.

Due to the absence of official statistics on individuals who have experienced coerced debt in the UK, and because this type of socio-demographic information is not captured by YouGov's panel, a two-stage approach was adopted. In order to quickly profile respondents so that panellists who have experienced coerced debt could be identified and targeted for this project, a screener question was appended to the end of multiple UK surveys over a period of three weeks. The table below shows the raw fallout from this screener. Respondents selecting ‘Yes, once’ or ‘Yes, multiple times’ were considered eligible for the main survey, from which the sample was then drawn.

For the following question, by ‘coerced debt’ we mean situations where a partner, ex-partner or family member pressures or forces you to take on debt when you do not want to. This could include:

  • making you take out a credit card or loan when you did not want to 
  • making you use credit to buy something when you did not want to 
  • taking out a loan, mortgage or credit card in your name when you did not want them to 
  • using your credit card or other sources of credit in your name, such as an overdraft when you did not want them to 
  • putting bills in your name, including car finance agreements, mobile phone contracts or catalogue payments when you did not want them to 
  • forcing you into a position where you fall behind on repayments or need to use credit to pay for essentials, for example by stealing from you, taking your wages or making you buy things. 

In the last three years, has a partner, ex-partner or family member forced or pressured you take on debt when you did not want to? If you would rather not answer this question, please select ‘Prefer not to say’.

  Frequency Percent
Yes, once 1,512 1.84
Yes, multiple times 1,541 1.87
No, I have not experienced this 76,366 92.86
Don't know 810 0.98
Prefer not to say 2,009 2.44
Total 82,238 100.00

Once the panel screening was complete, the data was downloaded and weighted to the national profile of all adults in the UK aged 18+. Whilst not an official benchmark, this gave an indication on what the target population might look like broken down by age and gender and was used to apply loose sampling targets for the main survey. Due to the lack of official figures for this specific population, and that it represents a relatively small proportion of the population, the final survey data has not been weighted.

Please note that these results are provided solely for contextual and transparency purposes. They should not be used to infer the prevalence of coerced debt among UK adults as the data is unweighted and reflects responses prior to any cleaning or quality checks.

The survey collected demographic data to understand who experiences coerced debt, including additional vulnerabilities. At StepChange, we consider all our clients to be financially vulnerable. However, a number of our clients also have an additional vulnerability. This could be due to a physical or mental health condition, low literacy or numeracy skills, or other communication barriers. Vulnerability can also be caused by circumstances – such as experiencing a bereavement, job loss or divorce.

The survey included questions with predominantly quantitative answers, but it also included some open text responses, which we have cited here. These quotes have been edited lightly for length and clarity.

Would you like to find out more?

Email us to discuss or request more information about this report at policy@stepchange.org