Women’s Aid shares findings on the impact of the Emergency Fund 2023
As Home Office and Women’s Aid look to launch a Flexible Fund at the end of January 2024, Women’s Aid shares findings on the impact the Emergency Fund 2023 had on survivors who received funding from the Emergency Fund.
On the 10th of May 2023, Women’s Aid launched an Emergency Fund to support survivors of domestic abuse with offered one-off payments. The fund allowed support workers to apply for either £250, for a single survivor, or £500, for those who had children or were pregnant on behalf of the survivors they support. The Home Office awarded a fund of £300,000 to deliver flexible grants for survivors of domestic abuse as part of the previously announced Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan.
Survivors accessing the fund were receiving support from Women’s Aid’s and Welsh Women’s Aid member services who understood their needs and the financial barriers to fleeing abuse which they experienced. The funding was used for a range of purposes such as replacing or purchasing essential goods for survivors or their children, to meet debt repayments, meet housing cost/rent payments whilst in refuge, aiding in accessing appropriate housing or to alleviate financial dependency on a partner or family member.
Today we share the findings from our evaluation activities, evidencing and understanding the impact of the fund on survivors. We know that survivors often leave an abuser with nothing and can present to services with little in the way of essential goods such as food and clothing. We know from our previous research that this creates a financial barrier to survivors escaping abuse and these financial struggles further continue to act as a barrier when survivors move on from support services. Whilst talking to support workers, and reading their responses to our survey, we were again struck by the significant impact a relatively small amount of money can have on a survivors’ journey.
There were many examples of this in our evaluation including a woman who had fled an abuser whilst pregnant. As she was a student at the time she was financially depended on her abuser, he had control of money, tenancy and bank account. Shortly before the fund opening up, she had spoken with her support worker and expressed fear that she didn’t “want to go back because I can’t afford to raise the baby on my own”. The support worker was able to apply for a £500 grant on her behalf to support her independence. The support worker told us “she got given 500 pounds and from that she actually managed to set up her entire nursery, get all her bottles and get clothes for the first couple of months.”
The impact of this for the survivor went beyond the acquisition of goods, it enabled her to escape the fear of returning to her perpetrator or having ongoing contact with him over the baby’s needs. The funding gave her the assurance and financial security which meant she did not need him. The support worker told us that “[the grant] has just changed things massively for her… everything’s set up. She didn’t feel like she needed any money. She didn’t feel like she needed to contact him for any money“.
Our evaluation was able to evidence the many different ways in which the fund made a difference to the lives of survivors including profound effect on the wellbeing of survivors and their children. We spoke to caseworkers who were able to share the difference the funding made to the survivors they supported with the funding:
This fund really has been a break in the clouds [for the clients we referred]. They are beyond grateful, when they received the funds they got in touch with their support workers, overjoyed. For some, they could clear debts, others could cover the food shopping and bills and one client was going to buy her daughter a laptop, as with so much homework being managed online via learning portals, she was the only child in her class that didn’t have IT access at home to prepare for her GCSEs. [Women’s Aid Federation of England ‘by and for’ member]
And she’s also got quite a lot of debt and hadn’t been able to pay her rent so that … every time I would see her, she’d be so upset to the point of crying. And when she received this, it was like it was a shock to her. And the pressure it took off her for the next time when I actually saw her face to face, she wasn’t crying. So, the mental health side of it and the stress side of it and the anxiety that she had over these things, it basically has eradicated a lot of that. [Welsh Women’s Aid member service]
Our evaluation was able to demonstrate the immense need and demand of funding like the Emergency Fund. As a result, we recommend a continuation of a financial hardship fund for survivors of domestic abuse using the model piloted.
Farah Nazeer, chief executive at Women’s Aid, comments:
Domestic abuse affects a huge number of people, many of whom face additional challenges when it comes to receiving the life-changing support that they need. We saw immediately the impact this fund had on survivors after they had fled their abuser with nothing to their name. I’m really proud of the life-changing improvements it had to the lives of adult and child survivors.
You can read the full report here.