SEA responds to new Domestic Abuse Plan

Today the Home Office publishes its new Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan and we welcome the focus on economic abuse.

Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs, CEO and Founder of Surviving Economic Abuse said,

“SEA welcomes the recognition of economic abuse throughout the newly released Domestic Abuse Plan, especially the strong encouragement given for more banks and financial institutions to sign up to the Financial Abuse Code. One in six women in the UK has experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner. It is vital that we better address this issue because without economic safety, victims remain trapped with abusers for longer and experience more harm as a result.

“Ensuring every professional who works with victim-survivors has a shared understanding of economic abuse will prove crucial to ensuring abuse is recognised and victim-survivors are better supported. That is why we also welcome the many references to the need for training of frontline professionals including the police. We hope to see the updated Domestic Abuse Matters training cover the extension of the coercive control offence to post-separation abuse as this will protect victim-survivors from ongoing control after leaving an abuser, when such behaviour commonly escalates.

We are delighted to see the increased funding commitment from the Home Office and hope this means the proposals in this Plan are given the resource they need to become a reality. We look forward to further detail on the entire Plan, and to working with government and other stakeholders to transform responses to abuse.”