Adjournment debate
The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) network is the largest independent network of free advice centres in Europe, providing advice from over 3,200 outlets throughout Wales, England and Northern Ireland. We provide advice from a range of outlets, including GPs’ surgeries, hospitals, community centres, county courts and magistrates’ courts. In 2006/7, the CAB service dealt with 5.7 million enquiries, including 1.7 million on debt, 1.6 million on benefits and 424,000 on housing.
Citizens Advice Bureaux regularly help victims of domestic violence. In 2006/7 bureaux dealt with 16,266 enquiries about domestic violence – an 11 per cent increase from the previous year, 2,890 enquiries about homelessness caused by domestic violence and 1,322 enquiries about injunctions. From this work, we have a wealth of experiences to contribute to this debate.
Citizens Advice regards domestic violence as of breach of a fundamental human right - the right to life, personal dignity and bodily integrity. It can have a devastating impact on physical and mental health, as well as education and employment opportunities. It is therefore essential that there is adequate government support for domestic violence organisations, both within statutory services and the voluntary sector.
Citizens Advice believes that there are insufficient refuge spaces and a dearth of publicly funded legal services for obtaining civil redress.
Local authorities have key roles to ensure that victims of domestic violence can leave their violent situation without facing homelessness. However, local authorities sometimes adopt ‘gatekeeping’ practices which can mean that some victims get turned away.
There is insufficient co-ordination between different agencies in the criminal justice system, and not enough is done to encourage reporting of domestic violence incidents. Citizens Advice believes that more community based specialist support and outreach services are needed.
Support Services
A consistent theme from bureaux evidence is the lack of consistent levels of support services for victims of domestic violence, especially in emergency situations. A recent EHRC report has also detailed some of the gaps in provision, and called on the government and local authorities to provide more support for the 3 million women in the UK who experience violence every year.1
Government policy currently acknowledges the benefits of the voluntary sector, and promotes partnership working between the voluntary sector and the state. However there are concerns that organisations providing vital services to domestic violence victims are insufficient to meet existing needs. Citizens Advice regularly gets reports about the difficulties of accessing specialist services especially in emergency situations, particularly where individuals have to deal with multiple agencies.
A client of a CAB in the South West fled her abusive husband with her 13 year old son. Initially she stayed with her mother, but at the time of seeking advice, she was sleeping on the floor of her adult daughter’s flat. The client needed advice about rehousing, getting benefits for her son transferred into her name and to apply for jobseekers allowance. The client and her daughter had already visited local agencies and the local authority, and were told that help was only available to statutorily homeless people. The client was advised to go to the CAB. The CAB adviser rang Women’s Aid but was told that all advisers were busy. The adviser rang the local authority’s homeless team who said they could only put her up for one night at a shelter.
Bureaux also regularly report the difficulties experienced by clients trying to find refuge and other emergency accommodation:
A client of a London CAB was in a violent relationship and applied to a local authority co-ordinated domestic violence agency and the homeless persons unit for emergency accommodation but the only refuge with a place available was in Scotland, which was simply not practical.
A CAB in Surrey reported that a woman with two children was being harassed by her ex-partner ever since they split up. After her ex-partner had smashed up her car and threatened further violence, the client asked to be moved to a place of safety. The police and local social services spent a lot of time trying to find emergency accommodation; however, no refuge or bed and breakfast spaces were available. The client had to remain in her home overnight. Due to an administrative oversight, nothing further was done to find the client emergency accommodation until the following afternoon, when she was referred to the CAB who managed to find her and her children a refuge space. However the refuge asked her not to go there until the following day.
Citizens Advice believes that the government needs to develop a comprehensive funding strategy for support services for victims of domestic violence.
Civil legal aid
We have particular concerns about the availability of civil legal aid services on offer through the Community Legal Service to assist with applying to the civil courts for injunctions. It is concerning that the Legal Services Research Centre’s periodic survey of legal needs reveals that 45,000 victims of domestic violence do nothing because they are unaware of their rights or are "too scared to do anything", whilst another 250,000 with relationship problems take no action because they don't want to damage the relationship.2 CABx report that the problem of domestic violence victims not seeking legal help is exacerbated by shortages of LSC contracted family lawyers willing to take on domestic violence cases. Between 2001 and 2007 the number of solicitor offices with a General Family Contract fell by 39 per cent, from 4,593 to 2,784.3
Civil legal aid is available in family cases qualifying under the legal help means and merits test. Whilst there are more legal aid providers in family law than in other civil law categories, and 18,531 recorded acts of legal aid help in domestic violence cases, our evidence suggests that provision is inadequate. There are problems of poor access at a local level when it is needed, especially on an emergency basis. Clients often have appointment waits of several weeks, or travel significant distances to find an appropriate firm before a solicitor will handle their case. Eligibility tests which include inaccessible equity or savings can also prevent access to legal support. And private providers typically charge a hefty up-front fee which may be unaffordable:
A woman who had suffered domestic violence sought advice from a West Midlands CAB about an injunction and occupation order. However, although the bureau called over 10 solicitors listed by the Community Legal Service, none would take on the case. The only solicitor that offered to take the case charged a minimum of £200 per hour. As the client was on low wages, she could not afford this. The bureau called the domestic violence unit at two local police stations who said that they had the same list of solicitors and were experiencing the same difficulties for their cases.
A CAB in Hampshire reported that the police had advised a woman with four children to get an injunction against her violent partner and his family. The client did not want to go into a refuge unless she really had to because of uprooting the four children. The client wished to see a solicitor in her local area, as she could not afford to travel further. The adviser contacted all solicitors in the local town who could undertake family legal aid cases. Only one was able to take on the case, but as the client’s partner was already using them, there would be a conflict of interest.
The Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 extended rights to civil remedies to a wider group of applicants. What is now needed is a dedicated emergency service for obtaining civil injunction or protection orders, perhaps developed in partnership between the Legal Services Commssion, HMCS and other agencies. One solution might be that where an emergency service is required and family law services are unavailable, victims of domestic violence could at least be able to access existing Police Station Duty Solicitor Schemes for the purposes of obtaining injunctive relief.
We welcome the Domestic Violence Helpline Service, run in partnership between Women's Aid and Refuge, as an important initiative which can supplement access to family solicitors’ services available through the Community Legal Service and Community Legal Advice Direct. This service helps people gain faster access to legal support. However, with a dwindling supplier base for family legal aid, there are still concerns about insufficient capacity to meet demand. A partnership approach is needed to ensure that victims can access spare capacity amongst family lawyers able to do this work.
Local Authorities and homelessness policies
Many victims of domestic violence need to apply to local authorities for rehousing as homeless; however we are concerned that local authority housing departments provide insufficient support for domestic violence victims. For the local authority to have a duty to rehouse someone, they must show that they are statutorily homeless, in ‘priority need’, and not intentionally homeless.
Under existing homelessness legislation and guidance, victims of actual or threatened domestic violence should be considered to be in priority need. If they are seeking rehousing in another local authority area they should not be referred back to the local authority area where they used to live if they would be at risk of further violence.
However, there is insufficient social housing to deal with demand and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has encouraged local authorities to adopt a homelessness prevention approach by undertaking a housing options interview with any potentially homeless households in order to explore alternatives to making a homelessness application. Bureaux report that some local authorities appear to be using this to discourage victims of domestic violence from making homelessness applications. This practice is known as “gatekeeping” and has acute effects for victims of domestic violence.
A client of a West London CAB had been a victim of domestic violence for over twenty years from her husband. When decided to leave her home and apply as homeless to the local authority, she was told that she was not homeless as she owned a property with her husband and should stay there. When the client explained to the homelessness officer that she was a victim of domestic violence and a carer for her disabled adult son, she was told that there was no point putting in a homelessness application as the decision would only find that she was not homeless. Instead, she was advised to rent privately.
A woman with two teenage children sought advice from a CAB in Somerset. She had left her husband because of his mental cruelty to her and violence towards one of her children. The council refused to recognise that this was sufficient cause to leave home and therefore refused to provide her with alternative accommodation. As a consequence the client and her children were forced to sleep rough.
We recommend that the DCLG issues further guidance to local authorities on the importance of ensuring that homelessness prevention strategies are not used to avoid accepting homelessness applications from victims of domestic violence.
Benefits, financial support and financial inclusion
Citizens Advice considers that the DWP and HMRC should ensure that staff administering claims for benefits and tax credits are trained to respond appropriately when dealing with victims of domestic violence. Victims of domestic violence who have left their partner and home, may not have any money of their own, and therefore need access to benefits quickly.
A CAB in Wiltshire reported that a woman with two young children had to move five times over a period of five months to escape a violent partner. She hadn't filled in income support claim forms for each address and had therefore lost her entitlement. She was now living in private rented accommodation and needed a further social fund loan. She already had one crisis loan, and could not get a community care grant until her income support claim had been sorted out. Overwhelmed with filling in forms and not getting anywhere, she and her family were living on around £97 per week. The DWP were unable to be flexible in accepting her claim due to her frequent changes of address. The CAB felt there should be more discretion on this.
It is particularly important for HMRC staff collecting and enforcing overpayments of tax credits to be sensitive to the issues faced by victims of domestic violence. Couples have to make a joint claim, and if any overpayment arises on this joint claim, they are both liable to repay. This liability continues after couples split up:
A woman sought advice from a CAB in Sussex about a tax credit overpayment. The client's ex-partner with whom she co-habited for six months proved to be violent, therefore she ended the relationship and he moved out. The client then received a letter informing her that she had been overpaid Tax Credit. The client agreed that she owed them some money but not the amount stated. The client needed advice about an appeal letter. HMRC insisted that all claims had to be dealt jointly with her ex-partner, something the client did not want to do because of the risk to her and her family.
Agencies in the Criminal Justice System
Citizens Advice welcomes the National Delivery Plan for Domestic Violence and other recent government initiatives to enhance strategies for criminal justice agencies in tackling domestic violence. However, domestic violence remains a chronically under-reported problem, with only 24 per cent of women experiencing domestic violence actually report incidents to the police.4
Our evidence raises concerns about whether the current framework does enough to encourage robust and pro-active police and CPS action in tackling incidences of domestic violence, and establishing reporting and monitoring schemes. The Home Office needs to monitor whether the Government’s targets in the Delivery Plan for domestic violence training, and increased reporting and prosecutions are being met. Bureaux regularly report cases where the approach taken by the police and prosecution demonstrates poor enforcement.
A CAB in Yorkshire described the experience of a woman from the Philippines who had permission to work in the UK as a care assistant until January 2012 with no recourse to public funds. The client had to call the police when her husband was violent towards her, causing bruising, but the police arrested her instead and held her at the station for four hours.
A CAB in the West Midlands reported that their client’s husband attacked her by kicking her leg and breaking her femur. When the police arrested him they said to her that he would be prosecuted and not allowed to return to her home. However, the case was dismissed in court on a technicality and the husband returned home.
Citizens Advice favours a proactive approach in which police services can partner with other agencies (e.g. Victim Support, Citizens Advice, local authorities) as ‘third party reporting centres’, on a similar basis to initiatives taken by police services in establishing racist incident monitoring schemes. The challenge is to achieve consistency of approach across all police forces. Such initiatives also need to be supported by public awareness campaigns.
We welcome other recent developments in criminal justice responses to domestic violence, specifically the Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences. These measures, however, are limited to victims who report to the police, are at high risk of harm, and dependant on the area they live within. Given that only 24 percent of women experiencing domestic violence actually report to the police, the needs of the further 76 percent can only be met by specialist support and outreach services, based within the community.5
Conclusion
Domestic violence is a multi-faceted issue. Organisations tackling the problem therefore need to be sensitive to associated issues social and financial exclusion. Too much domestic violence is invisible due to under reporting. The Government should aim to deliver improved access to legal remedies and develop flexible responses that can work between different agencies. The key is early identification of, and intervention with, victims of domestic violence earlier by utilising all points of contact with statutory services and voluntary sector agencies.
Citizens Advice recommends that:
- There should be far greater investment and capacity building in dedicated services and partnerships supporting the victims of Domestic Violence and a greater focus on service gaps, specifically the supply of refuge places and the availability of the publicly funded legal services for obtaining civil redress.
- The National Delivery Plan for Domestic Violence should be promoted and developed, as the basis for further guidance for statutory services dealing with domestic violence victims, developing co-ordinated responses, and delivering training for frontline service providers in local authorities, DWP and other relevant agencies.
- There should be a strengthening of the legal and reporting framework across the criminal justice system, and a drive to achieve a consistency across criminal justice agencies and areas to support initiatives to increase reporting prevalence.
Social Policy contact: James Sandbach James Sandbach
Public Affairs contact: Bethan Collins Parliamentary
1. Map of gaps The postcode lottery of violence against women support services, Commission for Equality and Human Rights and the End Violence Against Women coalition (2007)
2. Causes of Action – Civil Law and Social Exclusion (LSRC)
3. Making Legal Rights a Reality for Children and Families. Vol II Legal Services Commission 2007
4. Womens’ Aid Annual Survey, 2007
5. Womens’ Aid Annual Survey, 2007
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