Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to help women to leave abusive relationships.

The Department has a range of measures designed to support people who flee abusive households. This includes easements to benefit conditionality to give claimants the space and time needed to stabilise their lives, special provisions in both Housing Benefit and Universal Credit housing support when a claimant is temporarily absent from their home through fear of violence, and exemptions from Child Maintenance application fees.

When a victim of domestic abuse comes into a Jobcentre fleeing abuse, we can support them by helping them to open a new claim, and can put in place a rapid advance where needed, which provides access to funds in 2-3 hours.

As a department, we focus on helping frontline colleagues to recognise signs of domestic abuse and to support victims by signposting to expert organisations who can help. All work coaches undergo mandatory training on how to support vulnerable claimants, including recognising the signs of domestic abuse. Furthermore, any individual can be accompanied by a third party organisation to provide expert support when disclosing domestic abuse to a Work Coach, and a private area can be provided to disclose any information if requested.

The Department published information on DWP support to victims of domestic abuse on gov.uk in January 2018. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-violence-and-abuse-help-from-dwp