Domestic violence refuges set to lose 50% of funding

[QuarksandLeptons]

Domestic violence refuges look set to lose approximately 50% of their current funding due to a proposed change in the law that will come into effect in 2020.

At the moment, housing benefit can be used to pay for refuge places.

Article here that elaborates on this.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/11/i-could-have-ended-up-dead-why-womens-refuges-face-a-fatal-new-threat

WHY on earth does the government think this is a good idea? It’s inhumane. Where will these women and children go?

The fact that domestic violence has been estimated to cost the economy billions of pounds annually, surely this is a stupid and cruel short sighted idea that will create misery and end up costing the tax payer more in the long term.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/11/i-could-have-ended-up-dead-why-womens-refuges-face-a-fatal-new-threat

Incidentally, the article goes into the very interesting history of DV refuges. Apparently the woman who set the first one up is now an MRA (or so Wikipedia says)

The Government doesn't care. It learned that the more vulnerable people are the less likely they are to fight back because all their energy goes on survival. The more vulnerable the Government can make people, the more it can mistreat them. It is obscene.

I lived through the Thatcher era. She was pretty awful but May's Government is much, much worse.

What is the rationale behind this change? I can't understand why there is a need for this to change - surely it doesn't matter were the HB gets paid?

Apparently the woman who set the first one up is now an MRA (or so Wikipedia says)

Yeah that’s Erin Pizzey, she went a bit off the rails to say the least. But she did such excellent work for women in the 70s. Her book Scream Quietly or the Neighbours will Hear about setting up the first refuges is horrifying, and not just in the violence but in the way so any services - police, housing, everything - just turned their back on these women and children. Awful to think we’re effectively heading back there just to save some cash.

Pizzy experienced the same thing that many self righteous aid workers do when they help the less fortunate. They come to believe that the circumstances the people are in is through their own choice to be poor or to partner with abusive men. Essentially confirmation bias based on social conditioning.

Truly awful. These women have nothing. More women will stay in abusive situations. I don't doubt more will be abused, assaulted and murdered because if this law.

This is horrifying.
I published my letter to Women’s Aid on here earlier in the year. I truly believe my mother would be dead if she had not had access to a domestic violence refuge and my mental health would be far worse than it is now as a childhood survivor of domestic violence. They saved us.

What can we do? A campaign? Protests?
This is so important and Mumsnet does have power.

There needs to be protests and it would be great if @mumsnet could get behind this. It is a huge issue facing many of their users.

I'm so angry about this, especially because George Osborne said the Tampon Tax money would go to DV and Rape Crisis.
In fact, the Govt has done the precise opposite and made sure that none of it can go to groups providing a service.

I remember hearing that Austerity cuts have disproportionately fallen on women's shoulders, about 80%+. This is at the sharpest end of the cuts, women are at their most risk when trying to leave, and now they've got nowhere to to go.