When women remove themselves from an abusive relationship, often accompanied by their dependent children, Centrelink, along with the police, are two of the frontline services that victims approach, as they seek to restore safety in their lives and financial support after leaving.
Therefore, it is vital that such services move with the crisis of increasing numbers of family violence victims wanting to access immediate help by providing practical support that is timely and easily available.
In my case while married we were self-employed and the business was a family trust. The family residence was in both of our names, as was the trust. I left the abuser and took our three children with me. I had managed to squirrel away $700 in coins and $1500 from my late grandmother’s bequest, but did not have time to take the money with me when I left. The children and I left with money in my wallet intended for food shopping that day – barely enough for our immediate needs let alone travel expenses and accommodation.
Under the circumstances, faced with homelessness and no financial resources to feed the four of us, I was forced to approach Centrelink shortly after leaving. I was barely able to function emotionally at the time and the complicated application process for single parent Centrelink payments often resulted in me crying in the office or in the street outside their building. Worse still, Centrelink would not even allow me crisis payments (immediate payments that precede regular payments as per crisis circumstances) because my name was on the trust and our house, giving me legal ownership to both. According to Centrelink regulations I was therefore not eligible for any sort of payment, irrespective of my lack of finances at the time and dire situation.
I spent many hours at Centrelink explaining my crisis and inability to access funds due to my husband freezing or cleaning out our accounts. My pleas fell on deaf ears, so I had to deal with filling out complex appeal forms while searching for part-time paid employment.
As I said, I was not in a fit state to negotiate Centrelink application procedures due to the mental trauma from long-term partner abuse and the increasingly desperate and pressure-filled circumstances arising from no available money to feed us and impending homelessness. I had to wait three months before Centrelink commenced payments, so I was incredibly fortunate that the police found a refuge able to accommodate me and my three children while I waited for that first payment. If not for that refuge, we would have been homeless as my family did not have spare room for four more residents in their own homes.
From looking at my own experience and from anecdotal evidence of other victims I have spoken to in Tasmania, dealing with Centrelink remains problematic. I believe this institution must keep up with the greater numbers of victims making that crucial step of leaving their abusers by granting payments on a case-by-case basis rather than applying standardised regulations to every case regardless of whether that person is in crisis or not. A simple forensic investigation into every applicant’s financial and accommodation circumstances would surely provide enough information to credit or discount an applicant’s account of their immediate situation and fast-track access to crucial payments.
There is a downside to the granting of Centrelink single-parent payments. The following comes from Engender Equality, a Tasmania-wide not-for-profit organisation that supports people affected by family and domestic violence in Tasmania. This Engender Equality report is entitled, “Issue of Centrelink ‘fraud’ for women living in de-facto relationships who experience coercion into applying for Single Parent payments.”
“Women living in de-facto relationships with partners who receive a de-facto payment from Centrelink can experience coercive control and economic abuse intended to pressure her into applying for a single parent payment.
“This situation can occur for a woman when the partner using abusive behaviours choses to absorb the Centrelink de-facto payment on their own pleasures, or with-holds the woman’s access to the money, or provides a minimal allocation of the money that does not cover the household or children’s expenses (food, petrol, electricity, clothing, school expenses), or withholds money as a form of punishment and/or control.
“Women who have experienced this economic abuse, have shared that the above behaviours can be used with the intention of coercing her into the position of seeking the single parent payment or to punish her for her resistance to apply.
“Speaking with women, we hear that this fraud is not a behaviour they speak openly about. In fact, this information tends not to be shared unless it is asked about specifically. When women share about this experience, they talk about feeling shame and the reinforcing an existing stigma; that people who receive Centrelink benefits ‘cheat the system’.
“Women have shared that after they started receiving the single parent payment, their partners started using this as a coercive and controlling tool, ‘If you don’t [do the thing they want] then I will tell Centrelink and the police that you are committing fraud’.”
Family violence is the leading cause of mental health challenges for women between the ages of 18 and 44. Women who have disclosed that they have applied for the single parent payment have spoken about experiencing stress, shame, embarrassment, fear, desperation, anxiety and a loss of self-worth and self-respect. They have spoken about experiencing a loss of sleep and changes to their eating habits. These emotional responses, for some women, have endured for several years.
Women have shared that the fear of being reported for the “fraud” has been used coercively to keep them in the relationship, “If you leave me, I will tell everyone/Centrelink/the police, about your Centrelink fraud.”
This economic abuse has also been used as coercion after separation as a means of continuing to control where the person experiencing the abuse: where they go, who they see, what they do and how they parent.
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Deborah Thomson moved to Tasmania with her daughter in 2010, and now lives with her partner of nine years and a parrot.
She moved to escape domestic violence and, inspired by her new partner, wrote her first book, Whose Life Is It Anyway? Recognising and Surviving Domestic Violence, to help others recognise abuse (and in particular coercive control), in the home, and to increase their motivation to leave earlier.
After publishing her first book, she became a trained advocate through Engender Equality, a non-government Tasmanian organisation working with people and communities impacted by family violence. Deborah Thomson advocates for survivors of family violence, speaking at domestic violence events across Tasmania, through media channels and podcasts.
She recently completed a second book, detailing lived experience with domestic violence by her then husband, spanning 17 years from 1985 to 2003. This book is now used in Tasmania as an information resource for family violence counsellors and students.
Visit the homepage for Deborah's column, The Family Violence Epidemic here.
