Domestic abuse support organisation Women’s Aid is calling for a raft of measures to combat increased pressures faced by victims during the current period of high inflation.
The charity wants to see:
- An emergency domestic abuse fund to support survivors by paying for essential items and energy bills;
- Reduced energy costs for all refuges; and
- Better provision of legal services for survivors by reducing legal aid costs, giving fairer access to legal aid and other advocacy services, and issuing interest-free loans for legal support where necessary.
The organisation’s chief executive, Farah Nazeer, said: “We know that domestic abuse and economic abuse go hand-in-hand with abusers often controlling every aspect of a woman’s life … Women have told us that they are being trapped because of their dire financial situation; two-thirds of survivors told us that abusers are now using the cost of living increase and concerns about financial hardship as a tool for coercive control.”
She was commenting after Women’s Aid conducted a survey for survivors via its networks, primarily Twitter, Facebook and its own survivors’ forum. There were 137 responses between 21 June and 10 July.
The charity added the caveat: “This is a self-selecting sample limited to those survivors who we are able to reach via our networks. Therefore, it is unlikely to be representative of the demographics of all women who experience domestic abuse.”
