UPDATE: Theresa May has said, in her first ever Prime Minister's Questions, that 'we are working on exempting refuges from the cap' and that the Conservatives have 'a very good record on domestic violence'. However, according to Labour MP Sarah Champion, 'Women are bearing the brunt of violent crime in England and Wales, and it is being carried out against them by the people who are closest to them. This doesn’t sound like a record the prime minister should be proud of.'
For young people, the housing crisis is an everyday burden. There’s a shortage of housing stock, rising rents, unscrupulous landlords. And then Help To Buy, the government scheme sold as the one true way - beyond parental support - for people to buy their first property, turns out to only work for second-time buyers.
What next? Well, services specifically designed to help women trying to leave abusive or controlling relationships are going to miss out due to a new government rule, leading to 67% of women’s refuges closing.
At present, as soon as someone enters a refuge, their needs -therapy, counseling, security, housing - will be paid for by a combination of sources. Refuges will fund-raise, get money from the council and from housing benefit. The new puts a cap on the housing benefits, which means that when a person enters a refuge, they will only receive as much money as they would if they were moving into, say, a flat. With no therapy, counseling, or security. One refuge, which normally receives - and needs - £300 per person per week in order to run, faces receiving just £60 per person per week.
This is according to new research from Women’s Aid, who have previously found that 17% of refuges have closed since 2010. Recent statistics show that, on one day, 92 women and 75 children were turned away from a refuge, half of them because there was no space for them. If anything, refuges need more, not less support.
Polly Neate, CEO of Women’s Aid, says: ‘Refuges provide specialist support to help women and their children truly recover from domestic abuse, and rebuild their lives with a view to long-term independence. These women and children have been through enough, and they deserve better than services which are continually on the brink of closure.’
The Department for Work and Pensions told The Guardian it will stall these reforms, ‘while we conduct a review to ensure it is sustainable in the long term’, however, with refuges’ future in limbo, its tricky for them to plan and budget far ahead.
Awareness of domestic violence and its effects is rising, with BBC4 Radio show The Archers playing out a trial this week. Helen, a character who was victim of coercive control (a form of emotional abuse which is now legislated against), stabbed her then-husband and control-freak Rob and now faces trial for his attempted murder.
However, unless pressure is put on the government to ring-fence funding for vulnerable people, like survivors of domestic abuse - who, on average, take 13 attempts to leave a perpetrator - the majority of England and Wales’ refuges, there to help home and assist women like Helen, will no longer exist. Two women a week die at the hands of a partner or ex-partner.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.