A women is upset and holds her hands to her mouth and looks out of a rainy window

We need your voice.

Send a message to them and join us in urging the government to support women escaping domestic abuse.

Mel

Stride

UK Parliament

Mel

Stride

UK Parliament

Jeremy

Hunt

UK Parliament

Dear {contact_data~salutation},

I am writing to ask you to take urgent action to ensure survivors of domestic abuse can afford to flee to safety as prices continue to rise across the country.
 
The cost-of-living pressures are impacting us all, with rising costs of bills and essentials. For survivors of domestic abuse, the rising cost-of-living could cost them their life. Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales. I am worried that failure to act to support survivors of domestic abuse financially will lead to more women losing their lives. While I applaud you for increasing Universal Credit and other 'legacy' benefits, I am concerned that this will not happen until next spring, leaving survivors of domestic abuse continuing to struggle over winter, and risk trapping them with their abusers. 
I am disappointed too, that there has been no announcement of the introduction of an emergency fund for survivors of domestic abuse, which would make such a difference for women. This would be a lifeline for people fleeing abusers.
 
Refuge, the country’s largest single provider of specialist domestic abuse services, surveyed their frontline workers, who support many thousands of survivors and their children every day in refuges, outreach services and through the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, to understand the impact of the rising cost-of-living on survivors of domestic abuse.  
 
Over three-quarters of frontline staff said that the rising cost of living is preventing women leaving their perpetrators, as they increasingly cannot afford to support themselves and their children. One frontline worker said that ' It is preventing women from leaving. It is already so hard to leave but if the choice is destitution and not being able to feed the children, then is this really a choice?’.  For frontline workers supporting women who had left perpetrators, over half the said the cost-of-living is influencing survivors' decisions to return. Fleeing domestic abuse is expensive, and many survivors need support to flee to safety. 
 
Many survivors rely on Universal Credit in the months after leaving an abuser and are finding that it simply isn’t enough to make ends meet with the rising costs of basics. 69% of frontline workers said that the survivors they support are getting into debt, 68% are reliant on food banks and 58% cannot afford enough food for themselves and their children.  
 
You can make a real difference for the women and their children Refuge supports by
 
1. Making increase to benefits effective immediately
2. Make funds available for a Domestic Abuse Emergency Fund to help survivors with the costs of leaving an abuser. 
 
Women’s lives depend on your urgent intervention. As a Refuge support worker said ‘Times were already tough for survivors of domestic abuse and now tough is an understatement – I would say more impossible, frightening and could lead to dreadful consequences.’ 
 
Yours sincerely

{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name}
{user_data~Address 1}
{user_data~Address 2}
{user_data~City}
{user_data~Postcode}

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Demand support for women trapped with their abusers because they can't afford to leave.

Urge the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to increase Universal Credit and other benefits immediately - survivors can't wait until April 2023. And to make money available for an emergency fund for survivors of domestic abuse.

The cost of living crisis shouldn't cost her life.

Send your message to Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride now. The budget statement today did not go far enough.

We need your voice.

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