Save lives by putting domestic abuse at top of agenda, Chancellor told

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs has written to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt calling for urgent and immediate action on the “national emergency” that is domestic abuse – or risk a “devastating impact” on survivors and victims.

Jacobs said that the recent political inactivity had had a disastrous knock-on impact for victims.

Alongside Women’s Aid and Surviving Economic Abuse, she is urging Jeremy Hunt to create a national emergency fund which is accessible to all victims across England and Wales. This fund would allow survivors to access £500 in order to support them to escape abuse – which they say must include migrant survivors with no recourse to public funds.

The cost of living pressures are having a devastating impact on victims and survivors of domestic abuse, and the Commissioner also warned the situation will only get worse as winter approaches. Jacobs said:

“It is always difficult to leave an abuser but the cost of living crisis is making it increasingly hard for victims to find the resources to leave and we are seeing that abusers are using concerns of financial hardship as an extra tool for coercive control.”

Victims and survivors who lack financial means must choose between leaving their abuser or staying out of fear of not being able to pay the bills or provide for their children. In a recent survey by Women’s Aid, survivors said they were prevented from fleeing by the stark reality of not being able to support their children (50%), getting into debt (52%), or concerns that benefits wouldn’t cover increased living costs (48%).

Almost 70% of the survivors surveyed said they do not have savings of £200 or more; 67.2% could not get £500 together if they needed to, and 62% had borrowed money from family and/or friends to cover essential needs.

Research shows that women who do not have immediate access to cash at short notice are 3.5 times more likely to experience domestic abuse and will face considerable, additional barriers to leaving an abusive partner.

The Women’s Aid survey also found that 73% of women living with and having financial links with the abuser said that the cost of living crisis had either prevented them from leaving or made it harder for them to leave.

Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid said:

“We … urge the government to provide an emergency support fund for survivors to pay for essentials and help them to flee, as well as clarity on how the energy price guarantee will apply to domestic abuse services, including those with communal heat networks, with assurance this support will last until the end of the crisis. Survivors have suffered enough – they must be offered the help they need to support their children and to be free from abuse.”

One of the charities that supports male victims said that they were also seeing increased demand and more pressures on the survivors that contact them. Ippo Panteloudakis, Head of Services at Respect, said:

“This is an issue that will be affecting every victim of domestic abuse, regardless of gender. Callers to the Men’s Advice Line have said that the cost-of-living crisis, particularly the price of energy, is leading to arguments and increased tension at home. More must be done to support victims as the crisis deepens.”

Charity Surviving Economic Abuse has seen an increase in web traffic in recent months, and they expect to see a rise in economic abuse when the crisis takes hold this winter as abusers will use victim-survivors’ economic vulnerabilities to exert further control. Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs OBE, CEO of Surviving Economic Abuse, said:

“It is impossible to separate physical safety from economic safety. Those working with victim-survivors have told us they expect rising living costs to bring ‘a tsunami’ of abuse as abusers use crises as an excuse to establish or increase control over their partner’s finances – putting pressure on partners to move in sooner to combat rising costs, restricting fuel access, or deliberately running up bills in partners’ names.

Usual routes for safety or respite won’t be available because friends and family may not have capacity to support survivors during this crisis, further restricting options. Victim-survivors of economic abuse have barely had a chance to catch their breath from the coronavirus pandemic, and the spiralling living costs will put those already vulnerable at further risk. It has never been more important for the government to act and ensure victims can reach safety.”

In her letter to the Chancellor, Ms Jacobs is also calling for increased funding to support survivors of economic abuse given the expected increase in this form of abuse as a result of the crisis.

Services are also struggling to provide support for a myriad of reasons including heightened running and energy costs, higher service demand, and serious recruitment and retention challenges.

The Commissioner has also renewed calls for the Chancellor to allow survivors to be exempt from the legal aid means test.

“We know that legal support can be critical for victims and survivors in order to access protection and justice but is already prohibitively expensive. Under the current circumstances victims must be able to access legal aid without any barriers.”