This week, Women’s Aid and ITV brought attention to the fact that the cost of living crisis is having a major impact on domestic violence survivors’ access to specialised support services. Some of our members have spoken to ITV about their experiences during the crisis, and new research from Women’s Aid has revealed the impact on services. There is a link to the ITV report available on this page.
- Nearly all participants (96%) reported having at least one financial problem, such as rising rent or other costs (such as food or supplies), inadequate funding, or other financial problems.
- 59% of Women’s Aid members reported drawing on charitable savings to weather the economic downturn.
- One-fifth (20%) of employers reported having employees who were relying on food pantries, and nearly three-quarters (73%) reported having employees who were experiencing financial hardship.
- As of this writing, only five members (10%) had been successful in receiving assistance with their refuge’s energy bills.
- Eighty percent of members are having trouble filling open positions at the salaries they can offer.
- Surprisingly, many members (67%) said they would stop supporting survivors if this crisis continued without intervention, either by discouraging survivors from using existing support, decreasing the amount of support available, or closing in 5 cases. This percentage increased to 85.5 for services directed towards and run by women of colour and other marginalised groups.
Women’s Aid
Women’s Aid members and other domestic violence specialists provide a critical safety net for victims, helping them heal and start over after being victimised. According to the results of a survey we conducted with women who had survived domestic violence in the summer of 2022, the cost of living crisis was making it. Our members told us that the rising cost of living has had a significant impact on them at a time when the demand for their life-saving specialised services was at an all-time high.
In November of 2022, the Women’s Aid research team distributed a survey to members to learn about their reactions to the ongoing crisis and how it was affecting their ability to aid survivors. This document contains the complete findings from our survey.
The crisis has put a strain on the budgets of local aid organisations.
In response to our survey, 96% of the specialist frontline services said they were dealing with a financial issue because of the crisis. Member services are looking for ways to cut costs and have had to reduce the amount of ‘added value’ support they deliver in addition to their core services, such as care packages for survivors or peer group work programmes, as the majority (78%) report that their funding is not increasing in line with the increased costs they are seeing. Unfortunately, more than half (59%) were resorting to their charitable savings to make ends meet.
When our reserves are depleted, we will no longer be able to provide assistance to the remaining staff and survivors.
The crisis is making it difficult for staff to do their jobs, which in turn makes it harder for services to provide adequate support to survivors.
Contracts for domestic abuse support funding by local governments do not always cover the full cost of providing the service. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the responding specialist support services reported having employees who are experiencing financial hardship due to the sector’s low salaries and the rising cost of living. Twenty percent of businesses used the services of food pantries to help feed their employees.
Short-staffed services and heavy workloads lead to burnout and affect the wellbeing of existing staff, which member services told us raised concerns about the quality of the services they could deliver to survivors.
Staff are working around the clock to help women, and we simply cannot meet the rising demand. Due to the shortage of workers, existing employees must work harder and longer.
The strains on the public sector are being felt by domestic abuse support services.
Other public services are also feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis due to rising costs. A staggering 92% of responding Women’s Aid member services reported an increase in delays or difficulties in accessing services in at least one other sector. As a result, survivors are staying in refuges for longer, putting a strain on already overburdened services and limiting the available number of refugee beds.
“Lives are on hold” because of the delay in making progress, achieving positive outcomes, and recovering from the situation.
