Women’s Aid highlights barriers to refuge for women facing domestic abuse

Women’s Aid has published its 10th Nowhere To Turn report, highlighting barriers faced by women with additional support needs when seeking refuge or safe accommodation after domestic abuse.

The annual report draws on data from the charity’s No Woman Turned Away project, which supports women who face additional barriers to accessing refuge. These include having no recourse to public funds (NRPF), mental health or substance use support needs, disabilities, offending histories, multiple children or older male children.

During the year covered by the report, the project supported more than 250 women to flee their abusers. Women’s Aid said 85% of survivors supported by the project were helped to find housing, while an estimated 61% were safer at the end of the support provided.

The charity said shortages of refuge spaces and move-on accommodation continued to leave women and children without safe places to go. Four in 10 women supported by Women’s Aid said they experienced further abuse while waiting for a refuge space, while 13.4% said they were too scared to leave their homes.

The report found that no refuges were able to accommodate women with male children aged over 14. As a result, 13 women and their children were unable to secure a safe space through the project.

Women with children who had disabilities were also less likely to find suitable refuge accommodation. Only 14.3% of survivors in this group were placed in refuge by the end of the support provided.

The report also identified an increase in cases where perpetrators used aspects of a survivor’s identity as part of the abuse. The proportion of survivors experiencing this increased from 9.9% in the previous year to 24.5%. Immigration status, reported in 59.7% of these cases, and religion, reported in 30.6%, were the most common forms.