If your partner, family member, carer or anybody else is controlling your financial affairs against your wishes, then this is financial abuse. Every adult should be able to control their own financial decisions, but abusers can create a power imbalance over their victims by restricting their financial independence – or by taking advantage of the victim in some other way. Financial abuse can include:
- Someone else’s debts being put into the victim’s name and being left to pay them
- The abuser stopping making payments to a joint mortgage to punish the victim
- The victim being pressured to take out credit for someone else’s benefit
- Someone starting a mis-sale claim on the victim’s behalf, without the victim’s agreement or knowledge.
- Someone forcing the victim to appoint them as an authorised third party, in order to deprive the victim of any claim winnings, by redirecting the redress to the abuser instead.
The above forms of financial abuse can often be invisible to outsiders, as it can be difficult to spot that financial decisions are not being made with freedom and consent.
At Allegiant, we want our customers to be protected and safe. If you are concerned that a partner or family member is making a claim on your behalf, as a part of a pattern of financial abuse, you can contact us to cancel any third party authorisation in place.
Allegiant can be contacted by the following methods:
Telephone
0345 544 1563
(calls charged at local rate)
Office Hours:
Monday to Friday 8:30 am – 5:00 pm (excluding Bank Holidays).
Post
400 Chadwick House, Birchwood Park, Warrington Road, Birchwood Park, Warrington, WA3 6AE
Email:
Helpdesk@Allegiant-Finance.Co.Uk
However, we recognise that abusers may control and monitor communications, making phone contact especially difficult. Consider whether you can borrow a friend’s or trusted family member’s phone to make a call in a safe location. Or, if you are going to email us, you may wish to permanently delete the email from your ‘sent’ box. You can also request to set up a ‘care of’ postal address – where we can redirect letters from Allegiant to ensure that they go to a safe location, if your home is not a safe place to be receiving post.
Financial abuse can be a matter for the police. And the victim’s safety is the number one priority. If you believe that someone is checking your internet history, as a part of the abuse, you can remove your browsing history. You can also use ‘private mode’, which will not store the browsing or search history.
There is also a scheme called ‘Ask for ANI’ (Action Needed Immediately), which is a codeword scheme to allow for a safe and confidential way for victims to access help from their nearest pharmacy or jobcentre – https://enough.campaign.gov.uk/get-support/ask-for-ani