Joint briefing by Women's Aid, Family Action and Platform 51 on Social Fund Clauses (69-72 inclusive) of the Welfare Reform Bill for Lords Second Reading stage, September 2011
What we are calling for
Family Action, Platform 51 and Women's Aid are charities which between them provide a range of services, and financial support to the victims of domestic violence and their children. The charities are extremely concerned about the potential impact of forthcoming reforms to the discretionary Social Fund on women and children fleeing domestic violence.
The explanatory notes to the Bill state that: Clause 69(1) repeals section 138(1)(b) of the SSCBA 1992, which provides for payments of crisis loans, community care grants and budgeting loans from the discretionary social fund. Community care grants and crisis loans other than those currently available to applicants pending payment of benefit ("alignment loans") will cease. Instead, in England, new locally-administered assistance will be provided by local authorities. In Scotland and Wales the Devolved Administrations will decide the most appropriate arrangements for assistance. Budgeting loans and alignment loans will be replaced by payments on account (see clause 98)
We are looking for amendments to Clauses 69-72, and Ministerial reassurances in the course of debate as to Government intentions, to ensure that victims of domestic violence are able to access adequate financial support at a crucial and traumatic period in their lives. In particular we urge:
1) an amendment to ensure the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions publishes local connection eligibility rules, which must provide that no person is made ineligible for support solely on the basis of where they live or how long they have lived there;
2) an amendment to make mandatory provision of a resettlement grant to those who can demonstrate that they have fled the family home on grounds of domestic violence.
Background
As charities who work to support those who experience domestic violence we welcome the Government’s commitment to ending Violence Against Women and Girls. A guiding principle of its strategy is to "Provide adequate support where violence does occur". However an unresolved issue is the financial impoverishment of those women and children who have to quit the family home and re-establish a new one in order to avoid the continuing risk of violence.
Under Section 177 (1) of the Housing Act 1996, victims of domestic violence must be accommodated and treated as homeless and then re-housed by the local council as a priority. DCLG figures show that in England 2009/10, 14 per cent (5,620) of unintentionally homeless households were in priority need because of violent breakdown of relationship with a partner and this is likely to be an underestimate because of the way information is recorded. Research by Shelter in 2002 found domestic abuse was a contributing reason to why 40 per cent of homeless women had lost their homes.
The Women’s Aid Annual Survey shows the numbers of women and children using refuge accommodation annually,
Numbers of women and children using refuge accommodation annually (Women’s Aid Annual Survey 2005/6 – 2009/10)
|
Survey Period
|
Women
|
Children
|
|
2005/06
|
16, 815
|
19, 450
|
|
2006/7
|
17, 545
|
25, 451
|
|
2007/8
|
17, 670
|
19, 390
|
|
2008/9
|
16,750
|
19,005
|
|
2009/10
|
17,615
|
17,785
|
Women’s Aid surveys of residents suggest that significant numbers of these survivors set up new homes following their stay in a refuge service. Many of these rely on the Social Fund to provide basic furniture, beds, cookers and white goods. This fund therefore provides a lifeline for these families.
Every year our charities are involved in providing grants, support, refuge accommodation and other specialist domestic violence outreach services to thousands of women and their children who have been made destitute as a direct result of the abuse they have experienced . In order to escape the perpetrators, these women and children have had to leave their family homes, often in an emergency, thus also leaving behind major furnishings, white goods and other household necessities.
Family Action has calculated that a mother looking to establish a family home for her self and two children would need to spend at least £2,268 excluding the cost of flooring and new clothing or children's toys if using a cheaper store such as Argos to make purchases (see appendix).
In our experience, failure to obtain financial help with support to move and furnish new homes may be one factor leading women to returning to their violent partners; and fear that they will be unable to obtain such financial help may prevent women from leaving their violent partners at all. Lack of sufficient financial help is also likely to delay women’s move from refuge accommodation into their own homes with their children; or mean that they are only able to establish new homes with risk of material deprivation and poverty, or by contracting substantial debts, all of which has impact on their children We fear that this proposal combined with the cuts to specialist domestic violence and welfare advice and support services will leave victims living in dangerous situations because they fear the prospect of impoverishing their children. This will increased risks to women and children – and the potential for domestic homicide - at present 2 women per week are killed by current or former partners, and thousands of children are put at risk.
Family Action runs a welfare grants scheme which is accessible to women fleeing domestic abuse. This scheme saw an increase of 9 percent, with 27% of the number of applicants applying for grants as a result of domestic violence in 2010/11, compared to 18 per cent of applicants in 2009/10. If changes to the Social Fund go through, the charity is concerned it will see more applicants from this group and will be unable to meet demand. It receives a wide range of applications for white goods to furnish a new home or for clothes, as families frequently have to leave everything when they flee during a crisis.
Social Fund Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans can be a source of funding for the above, but the Fund is already sorely pressed to accommodate all eligible applicants. In addition the proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill to give local authorities discretionary powers in respect of provision may further jeopardise its accessibility to those fleeing domestic violence.
As it is not proposed to ring fence the Fund, cash-strapped local authorities may use it to supplement funding of statutory services that they have a duty to provide; and if local authorities, or their providers, have to prioritise applicants we foresee that they could be tempted to use "local connection" criteria which clearly are not met by those who may have to move to new areas to evade the perpetrators of domestic violence.
Housing legislation does not require a local connection for anyone fleeing violence and we strongly recommend that the welfare reform bill should also make clear that this applies to the allocation of locally provided alternatives to social fund. We also suggest that an amendment that limits local authorities’ ability to set local connection criteria more generally in respect of the new monies would benefit a wider range of vulnerable groups who can not demonstrate local connection.
Another solution is to establish a mandatory resettlement grant for the victims of domestic violence as was proposed by the previous Government’s last review of the Social Fund. Where provision for financial hardship is not made mandatory or ring-fenced for vulnerable groups there is less prospect of it reaching vulnerable groups, as the experience of discretionary grant funding for school uniforms and the Supporting People programme has demonstrated. CAB research in 2007 found that 57 per cent of LAs provided no help with school uniform costs, for example. Earlier this year, St Mungo’s and other charities highlighted how local authorities were raiding Supporting People monies to provide other services.
We regret to say we have not found sufficient reassurance on these points in the DWP Minister’s response to the Welfare Reform Bill Committee. We do however believe there is scope for Peers to use the opportunity of the Welfare Reform Bill in the Lords to amend the above clauses.
For further information please contact:
Family Action
Rhian Beynon, Head of Policy and Campaigns
rhian.beynon@family-action.org.uk or 0207 241 7457
Anthony McCaul, Senior Media and Campaigns Officer
anthony.mccaul@family-action.org.uk or 0207 241 7632
Platform 51
Helen Beresford, Parliamentary Officer
Women’s Aid
Deborah McIlveen, Policy and Services Manager
D.McIlveen@womensaid.org.uk or 0207 549 0587
D.McIlveen@womensaid.org.uk or 0207 549 0587
