Create a legal route to write off coerced debt for victims of economic abuse

Create a legal route to write off coerced debt for victims of economic abuse — 36 signatures. Status: open.

Petition background

Coerced debt is debt an abuser forces, or tricks, a victim into taking on. It has been reported that around 1.6 million UK adults have experienced it. A conviction for the abuser does not automatically remove the debt from the victim's name.

Additional details

We ask the Government to legislate a route to remove proven coerced debt. Only 28% of victims who disclose coerced debt get any of it written off, and 48% are left with damaged credit records. We ask the Government to create a statutory discharge route for evidenced coerced debt, modelled on the reversal of fraudulent transactions; make the currently voluntary Financial Abuse Code mandatory for lenders; and require credit reference agencies to record coercion markers and repair victims' credit files. Fraud can be reversed. We believe coerced debt needs the same route.

View this petition on the official UK Parliament website

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