Supporting safety through flexible funds

Economic advocacy helps victim-survivors access immediate financial support for essential living costs so that financial hardship does not compromise their safety or economic independence.

This may include support with food, heating, transport, clothing, childcare, household items or emergency accommodation. Access to timely and flexible financial assistance can help victim-survivors meet urgent needs while taking steps towards safety and stability.

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Why flexible funds and hardship responses matter

Economic abuse can leave victim-survivors and their children facing immediate financial hardship when they are seeking safety, rebuilding their lives or navigating post-separation abuse. Without access to essential resources, financial pressures can create additional barriers to leaving, maintaining safety or meeting day-to-day needs.

Flexible funds and rapid hardship responses enable services to address urgent needs quickly and in a way that reflects each victim-survivors’ circumstances. As part of wider safety planning, they can help reduce immediate risk while longer-term financial support is put in place.

How flexible funds support safety and economic stability

The case study below demonstrates how flexible funding can help practitioners respond quickly to financial hardship caused by economic abuse and support longer-term economic stability and independence.

The situation:

RISE supported two victim-survivors whose immediate financial hardship was a direct consequence of economic abuse. 

One woman continued to experience post-separation economic abuse through repeated legal proceedings initiated by the perpetrator. Although her teenage child refused contact with the perpetrator, she was ordered to pay the perpetrator’s legal costs despite being unable to afford legal representation herself. The resulting financial burden placed additional pressure on her recovery and economic independence. 

Another woman had fled domestic, including economic, abuse with her four young children and was living in damp emergency accommodation. Having left the relationship with very limited financial resources, she was unable to afford essential household items needed to provide safe and healthy living conditions for her family. 

Without rapid access to flexible financial support, both women faced immediate hardship that risked undermining their safety, wellbeing and ability to recover from economic abuse. 

The economic abuse advocacy:

Through economic abuse screening, RISE identified immediate financial hardship as a safety risk.  
Assessed the victim-survivor’s most urgent needs.  
Accessed flexible funding without delay.  
Used funding to help meet essential legal costs.  
Purchased essential household equipment to improve living conditions.  
Responded flexibly to each victim-survivor’s individual circumstances.  
Linked practical support to wider safety planning.

What changed:

Reduced immediate financial pressure.  
Met urgent practical needs.  
Improved wellbeing and stability.  
Supported longer-term recovery.

Why this matters:

Financial hardship is a safety issue, not just a financial issue.  
Flexible funds help services respond quickly to individual needs.  
Small amounts of funding can have a significant impact on safety and recovery.  
Meeting essential needs reduces financial pressures that can keep victim-survivors economically trapped.

To understand more about how financial hardship as a result of economic abuse can increase risk, read our resource on Integrating economic abuse into risk assessments.

Flexible funds and hardship support: practitioner guidance

A lack of money can create immediate barriers to safety. Domestic abuse practitioners play an important role in identifying these barriers and helping victim-survivors access financial support.

Evidence from flexible funding schemes suggests that practitioner-supported access can reduce the burden on victim-survivors and help ensure funding responds to their individual safety and recovery needs.

When supporting a victim-survivor:

Identify financial barriers to safety. As part of safety planning, explore whether a lack of money or essential items is preventing the victim-survivor from leaving, remaining safely at home or taking other steps towards safety and stability. Check out our DARA & DASH tools which may also support this.
Ask what would make the biggest difference now. Start with the victim-survivor’s needs rather than a predetermined list of items. This might include transport, food, clothing, childcare, emergency accommodation, household items, security measures or other costs associated with getting and staying safe.
Support access rather than simply signposting. Where appropriate, help the victim-survivor understand their options, make referrals or applications, and advocate with fund providers. Avoid asking them to navigate complex systems alone.
Minimise repeat disclosure. With the victim-survivor’s consent, use information already gathered through assessment and support planning wherever possible rather than asking them to repeatedly explain or evidence their abuse.
Consider how support can be provided safely. Discuss whether payments, vouchers, purchases or communications relating to an application could be seen or accessed by the perpetrator and agree the safest way to receive support.
Connect immediate support to longer-term economic safety. Flexible funding may resolve an urgent problem but not the underlying economic impact of abuse. Consider whether further support is needed around benefits, housing, debt, banking, employment or other aspects of economic independence.

Good practice for service managers supporting practitioners

Making it easier for practitioners to find financial support.

Practitioners should not have to search from scratch for financial support every time a victim-survivor needs help. Services can make this easier by developing simple systems for identifying and maintaining information about the funds most relevant to victim-survivors in their area.

Service managers can:

Maintain a short, practical directory of trusted funding routes, including key national funds, local welfare assistance and relevant local charitable support. Record eligibility, what the fund can pay for, how to apply and expected timescales.
Give someone responsibility for keeping information up to date. This could sit within an existing economic advocacy, welfare or practice lead role, with other practitioners feeding in new information or changes they encounter.
Review information regularly rather than continuously. Record when each funding route was last checked and schedule periodic reviews, with more frequent checks for time-limited funds.
Develop relationships and referral routes with commonly used local providers, so practitioners know where to go and who to contact when a victim-survivor has an urgent or complex need.
Share intelligence across local partnerships. Work with local authority welfare teams, housing, money and debt advice services and other specialist organisations to avoid each service maintaining separate information about the same funds.
Learn from applications. Encourage practitioners to flag when eligibility criteria, application processes or availability change, and use their experience to identify which funding routes work well for victim-survivors.

The aim should not be to maintain an exhaustive list of every possible grant, but to give practitioners a reliable starting point and clear routes for finding additional support when needed.

Additional financial support for victim-survivors

Flexible funds can help address immediate needs, but victim-survivors may also need support to rebuild economic stability over time.

Alongside flexible funds, practitioners can signpost victim-survivors to Surviving Economic Abuse’s guidance on grants, benefits and financial help. This resource explains the financial support that may be available during and after economic abuse and can help victim-survivors access longer-term financial assistance.

Grants, benefits and financial help

Who can provide this advocacy? 

Identifying and responding to financial hardship is a shared responsibility across the coordinated community response.

Domestic abuse services, housing, health, social care, welfare advice, employment services and community organisations may all play a role in recognising need, facilitating access to emergency support and providing ongoing practical assistance, supported by effective partnership working and referral pathways.

Flexible funds advocacy is especially relevant for specialist domestic abuse services, local authorities, housing providers, welfare assistance teams, community organisations and funders administering hardship or crisis support.  

Reflective questions for commissioners  

Effective hardship support requires funding mechanisms that are accessible, responsive and survivor-centred. These questions may help commissioners assess the effectiveness of local provision.

Can survivors access flexible emergency funds quickly when immediate needs arise?  
Are funding processes simple, trauma-informed and proportionate?  
Do commissioned services have discretion to respond flexibly to individual needs?  
Is hardship support embedded within safety planning and recovery rather than treated as stand-alone crisis provision?  
How is flexible funding improving survivor safety, stability and long-term independence?