Survivors of a type of domestic abuse known as coerced debt gained legal protections in Connecticut on Wednesday, as new law went into effect, prohibiting the practice and providing victims with a means of reclaiming their financial autonomy.
The policy, adopted by the state legislature during the 2024 session, was designed to aid people who have been forced to incur financial burdens by an abuser, who uses the debt as a means of control.
During a public hearing last February, Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence President Megahn Scanlon told lawmakers that coerced debt often involved tactics like abusers forcing survivors to take on credit card debt through threats of harm.
“Money is a powerful tool that many abusers use to keep their victims dependent upon them and unable to leave,” Scanlon said. “Coerced debt is non-consensual credit-related transactions that occur in relationships involving coercive control.”
The new law, passed under Senate Bill 123, defines the practice as debt in the name of a domestic violence victim, incurred by force or under duress, threats, intimidation, or undue influence.
The statute provides relief to victims by creating a process by which creditors can be required to pause their collection activities against a survivor. The law gives these victims a legal means to establish that their debt was coerced and ask a court to relieve them of their financial obligation to pay it. Claimants like debt collectors could then seek to hold abusers accountable for any unpaid debt.
The policy was crafted by the legislature’s Banking Committee, which is co-chaired by Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford. After the state Senate unanimously approved the bill in April, Miller said her goal was to empower survivors to sever ties with abusers without the burden of unjust debts placed upon them under duress.
“No one should be bound by financial ties deliberately intended to entangle them in an abusive relationship,” Miller said. “This form of abuse is disproportionately directed at women and SB 123 takes important steps to ensure that victims can reclaim their financial autonomy.”
Economic abuse is often reported by domestic violence survivors, according to the members organizations with the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. For instance, 90% of the survivors served by the Susan B. Anthony Project in Torrington have experienced some type of economic abuse with between 65% and 75% reporting types of coerced debt.
This abuse is not exclusive to Connecticut. A 2019 survey by the Center for Survivor Agency & Justice found that 52% of 1,823 women who called the National Domestic Violence Hotline reported experiencing coerced debt.
