Sally* is a young mum of 2 young children. Prior to Sally taking out an intervention order against her abusive ex-husband, Sally moved house twice. Each time her ex-husband continued to harass her and leave offensive messages on her phone. When living with her ex-husband, he controlled all the finances, although she was working herself, leaving her with little money she could call her own. He continually degraded her in front of the children, and when a situation arose when her oldest child started to also demean her as well, Sally knew the time was right to start making a life on her own.
Prior to leaving her ex, he had forced her to take out a personal loan in her name solely, to pay back a joint personal loan and 3 credit cards that were all in his name. She has received no monetary benefit from taking out this loan. Also, when she received her latest tax return he used the funds to buy a car in his name.
It has taken Sally quite some months to come to a point of where she is now. She has been making payments on the personal loan all this time as she is concerned that if she doesn’t it may affect her credit rating. By doing this, it meant that she had to apply for full time work so she could manage financially. Sally is now in the process of applying for full custody of her children.
Sally is a Financial Counselling client. *not her real name