Coerced debt is a serious form of economic abuse. It happens when someone uses control, pressure, threats, fraud, or your personal information to create debt in your name or force you to take on financial obligations you did not freely choose.
This can happen in domestic violence, family violence, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, or other situations where one person uses power and control over another.
Coerced debt is not your fault.
It can affect your credit, housing, employment, banking, safety, and ability to rebuild your life. Many survivors only discover the debt when they try to leave, apply for housing, open a bank account, access credit, or regain financial independence.
Coerced Debt Can Include
Coerced debt is not only a financial issue. It is a safety issue, a justice issue, and a form of control.
The Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment is Canada’s leading and pioneering organization dedicated to advancing economic safety, financial inclusion, and justice for survivors affected by economic abuse, coerced debt, and financial exploitation.
As a national subject matter expert, CCFWE works to change how systems recognize, prevent, and respond to coerced debt. Our work brings together research, survivor experience, public education, financial inclusion, policy influencing, law reform, and systems change.
We work with governments, financial institutions, legal professionals, community organizations, private sector partners, and policymakers to remove barriers that prevent survivors from rebuilding safety, credit, housing, employment, and long term economic security.
Many survivors feel shame, fear, or confusion when they discover debt in their name. But coerced debt is abuse. It is part of a larger pattern of control, and support is available.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Bill 41, the Protection from Coerced Debts Incurred in relation to Human Trafficking Act, 2023, was an important step in recognizing the financial harm caused by human trafficking and coerced debt in Ontario.
CCFWE spoke in support of Bill 41 at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, helping bring attention to the connection between human trafficking, economic abuse, credit harm, and systemic financial barriers.
Bill 41 created an important foundation for addressing coerced debt connected to human trafficking. It also shows why similar protections are needed for survivors of domestic violence, family violence, and intimate partner violence who experience coerced debt.
Survivors should not be punished for debt created through abuse.
CCFWE continues to call for stronger protections, survivor centered policies, financial system accountability, and national action to address coerced debt in all contexts of abuse.
Economic safety is safety. Financial freedom is freedom.
CCFWE invites survivors, partners, institutions, and community leaders to join us in advancing stronger protections against coerced debt and economic abuse.
Survivors can engage through our National Survivor Council, helping shape policies, tools, and systems that reflect lived experience.
Contact us [email protected] if you would like to host a workshop, request training, or partner with CCFWE to strengthen awareness and response to coerced debt.
