Coerced debt abusers may put bills or mortgages in their partners’ name, push them into taking out loans, or steal their wages to force them to borrow.

A charity has called for banking industry to take totally new approach over type of financial abuse that leaves victims saddled with unpayable debts. Coerced debt abusers may put bills or mortgages in their partners’ name, push them into taking out loans, or steal their wages to force them to borrow.

Joanna Thomas shared a account with her now ex-husband and told the Observer cash she received in the form of a bonus was withdrawn by her then-husband to buy a boat on eBay. It took more than 11 years after the relationship ended for her to finally escape the impact of a ruined credit file.

She estimates that she paid out at least £130,000. Thomas is part of a “large minority” – about 12% – of StepChange ­clients seeking help for coerced debts. “We found that victim-survivors often didn’t disclose what they’d been through,” says Genevieve Richardson, senior public policy advocate at StepChange and author of the report.

READ MORE UK faces snow and rain bomb with nowhere inside 545-mile radius spared

“This was often related to safety, but it was also related to the fact that they didn’t even realise that they’d been through coerced debt, or that there was anything that they could do about it.”

“Even in cases where clients did tell debt advisers or banks what they had been through, there was inconsistency in the responses,” Richardson says. “We saw some people getting really great results. One client had £30,000 of her debts written off, but others were turned away. A lot of people are slipping through the cracks.”

“Collaboration across the industry is essential,” says Sue Owen-Bailey, social innovation and sustainability manager at Equifax UK. “If someone has been a victim of economic abuse, and credit has been taken out in their name without consent, we can help query these applications with lenders.”

John Webb, a consumer expert at another leading agency, Experian, says: “We can raise disputes with relevant companies, saving time and distress. We also help people add passwords to their credit reports for extra security, break financial links with others, and add notes to accounts to explain they were the result of abuse.”