An independent inquiry into the system

The bank saw the debt. The police saw the rows. The courts saw the paperwork.

Nobody asked who was being controlled.

silent no more

Read the findings Share your story

Coerced UK is an independent research organisation. We examine how banks, police and courts fail to ask about coercive and controlling abuse — and we publish what that failure costs the people living inside it. More about us

Latest findings

What we have been able to show

Evidence first. Pattern over anecdote. Every finding is a document you can read, challenge and cite — not a campaign slogan.

Report 03

August 2026

Joint accounts, joint debts, single control

How lenders treat the abuser's debt as the survivor's problem — and what a statutory duty of inquiry would change for the person who never chose the borrowing.

Placeholder briefing. Full report to be published.

Analysis 01

August 2026

The arrest log that never asked

A review of domestic-abuse records finds no financial-coercion screening in most cases filed. The form records the incident. It does not record the control.

Placeholder briefing. Full analysis to be published.

All findings

The omissions

The system saw the signs. It never asked.

This is not a list of crimes. It is a list of questions that were never put on the form — and the people those missing questions left unprotected.

  1. 01

    Banks

    Lenders assess the joint account's creditworthiness. Nobody asks who controls it.

    Survivors are pursued for debts coerced by their abuser, with no duty of inquiry on the lender.

  2. 02

    Police

    Risk assessments record injuries and incidents. Financial control is not a question on the form.

    Economic abuse stays invisible to policing, so it rarely reaches a protection order or a charge.

  3. 03

    Courts

    Enforcement assumes the signatory is the borrower. Coercion is not a defence the court solicits.

    The system that should protect survivors ends up collecting the abuser's debt from them.

1 in 5

women in the UK report economic abuse by a partner or ex-partner

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1 in 3

case files reviewed contained coerced debt; none triggered a vulnerability flag

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0

convictions citing financial coercion alone, 2015–2025 (indicative)

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All figures above are placeholders. Every number published on this site will carry a confirmed source. We will not cite a statistic we cannot stand behind.

Survivor voices

Hear what nobody asked

Nobody ever asked me whether I was being controlled. They asked whether I could afford to leave.

Survivor, 34 — attribution policy to be agreed (placeholder)

He signed the loans. I paid the letters.

Survivor (placeholder)

The first person who asked was the debt collector.

Survivor (placeholder)

Share your story

Tell us what nobody asked you

Your account is evidence. It is also yours. Read this first, then decide whether — and how — you want to write.

Before you write

  • Covering your tracks — read our leaving-this-page guidance before you start. Do not write from a device you share if that puts you at risk.
  • Who reads this — submissions are read by named staff only. Nothing is published without your explicit consent.
  • What happens next — you choose: anonymous, or in contact with a named researcher. Your data is never sold or shared.
Share anonymously Share with contact

The encrypted submission form arrives in the next build stage.

About us

Independent, evidence-led, survivor-informed

We are not a helpline and we are not a campaign slogan. We are a research organisation that treats survivor testimony as evidence and institutional silence as a finding.

Who we are

A UK non-profit examining systemic failures in supporting people subjected to coercive and controlling abuse. We work with survivors, researchers and institutions — and we publish what we find, including when the finding is that nobody asked.

Our method

We gather published evidence, Freedom of Information responses and first-hand accounts, then cross-check before publication. AI tools are used only for transcription and anonymisation — never for analysis or conclusions.

Named limits

Our sample is self-selected, so findings show patterns rather than prevalence. Every number on this site carries a source. Where a figure is not yet confirmed, we say so in plain language.

Support

You do not have to read this alone

If you need help more than evidence, start here. These organisations exist to support you. We list them because this work should never trap anyone on the page.

In immediate danger

Call 999 now. When you can, leave this page — the Quick exit button opens Google and this site will not come back when you press Back.

Financial and economic abuse

National helplines

Finding local services

Contact

Three doors, one organisation

Press, policy and funding each have a named route. Survivor stories do not go through this form — they go through Share your story, where safety comes first.

01

Press

For journalists: comment, evidence access and interviews.

press@coerced.org.uk

02

Policy

For parliamentarians, civil servants and regulators.

policy@coerced.org.uk

03

Funding

For funders and partners who want to support the work.

funding@coerced.org.uk

This is not the route for survivor stories — use Share your story above.