Women’s Aid responds to the Budget 2023

Farah Nazeer, chief executive at Women’s Aid, said:

“We welcome the new funding announced for charities in the budget today, and are hopeful that this will include dedicated financial support for specialist domestic abuse services.

However, we are once again disappointed that no explicit named funding has been dedicated to tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in today’s budget – particularly given the government’s promise to eliminate it. We know domestic abuse services are chronically underfunded and constantly working against the tide to provide life-saving services to women and children. With as many as 46% of women experiencing domestic abuse in their lifetime, it is imperative that these specialist services receive dedicated, sustainable funding to support survivors – including ring-fenced funding for those led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women, Deaf and disabled women, those with No Recourse to Public Funds and LGBT+ survivors.

“The economic case is clear. Women’s Aid’s recent report – Investing to save: the economic case for funding specialist domestic abuse support – shows that every pound invested in domestic abuse support services represents a £9 saving to the public purse – as they not only provide vital support to women and children experiencing abuse, but also reduce pressure on other services such as the NHS. The resource that has been dedicated to ending VAWG so far has been piecemeal and we have serious concerns that the government’s failure to commit a minimum of £427m annually for specialist services in England is putting more and more women’s lives at risk.”