Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support domestic abuse victims during the cost of living crisis.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all victims of domestic abuse receive the support they need, when they need it. In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which invests over £230 million into tackling domestic abuse, including over £140 million for supporting victims.

To help to ensure victims do not remain with an abuser for fear of not having a roof over their head, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities introduced a new legal duty within the Act on local authorities to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation, including refuges. This is backed by £125 million of Government funding to ensure that these vital services are available to anyone who needs them, wherever they live.

Ensuring victims and survivors have the funds to move forward with their lives is crucial. That is why in the Domestic Abuse Plan, the Home Office committed to running a further trial of the flexible funding model. The funds will be made available to charities in selected local authorities, and they will have wide-ranging discretion on what these funds can be used to acquire, based on their first-hand understanding of individual’s needs.

We also know that economic abuse can often leave victims economically dependent on abusers, creating financial insecurity that makes it harder for them to access safety. The Government is committed to tackling this form of abuse which is why for the first time in history, economic abuse is now recognised in law as part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse, included in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (the Act). In the Domestic Abuse Plan, we have committed £200,000 of funding to further support improving the response to economic abuse.