A nationwide survey released this week by the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice has found that victims of coerced debt face overwhelming barriers when trying to remove fraudulent or forced debt from their credit reports. The findings, detailed in the report “Disregarded and In Debt: Understanding Barriers to Relief for Victims of Coerced Debt”, were released in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and highlight how existing credit reporting laws often fail to protect those subjected to economic abuse.
Coerced debt occurs when an abuser either fraudulently opens credit accounts in a victim’s name or forces the victim to take on debt through intimidation or physical threats. The NCLC report describes coerced debt as a “particularly damaging form of economic abuse” that creates lasting financial instability—often trapping survivors in abusive relationships because of destroyed credit and limited access to housing, employment, and new credit lines.
The report draws on responses from over 200 direct service providers across 40 states. Nearly all respondents (over 99%) said survivors cannot afford legal assistance, and almost 98% said survivors do not understand or trust the legal system. Many reported that credit reporting agencies refuse to remove coerced debts without police reports, even when victims submit sworn affidavits or identity theft documentation. One respondent noted that survivors “routinely assist clients with preparing FTC Identity Theft reports… but CRAs will routinely refuse to block with this identity theft report”.
The survey also revealed systemic problems in the credit reporting process. Victims frequently face difficulties obtaining or understanding their credit reports, and language barriers make the process even harder. Advocates shared stories of survivors who were re-traumatized by hostile interactions with creditors or were denied relief because financial institutions assumed they had “benefited” from debts incurred during an abusive relationship.
According to NCLC senior attorney Andrea Bopp Stark, coerced debt “creates financial insecurity, the leading reason survivors stay in or return to an abusive relationship.” Her colleague, Carla Sanchez-Adams, added that “too few victims of coerced debt are successful in blocking or removing coerced debt from their credit reports” and called on states to provide additional protections for survivors.
Consumer advocates hope the findings will support ongoing efforts at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to expand Fair Credit Reporting Act protections to cover coerced debt. For now, the report underscores how survivors remain, in many ways, punished by the very credit system meant to protect them.
