Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women\u2019s Aid, said:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the pledges made in the Labour government\u2019s election manifesto to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade, we are once again disappointed to see a budget that does not explicitly mention VAWG and domestic abuse.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If the government is still committed to its manifesto pledge, then investing in the sector that supports\u00a0survivors and provides lifesaving, frontline services is\u00a0absolutely essential.\u00a0For years, successive governments have failed to invest into the VAWG sector in a way that is as sustainable as it is impactful. We have seen powerful, standalone investments that make for positive\u00a0interventions, yet\u00a0neglect to provide the ongoing support that\u00a0victims and\u00a0survivors urgently need. Without\u00a0urgent and sustainable investment,\u00a0local refuges and community-based services\u00a0simply\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be able to continue supporting women and children at their point of need, leaving many trapped in life-threatening situations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the omission of VAWG\u00a0from\u00a0the autumn budget, we are pleased to see that the government has made the decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which\u00a0placed countless children at risk of poverty.\u00a0This is a shift that has been\u00a0long-campaigned\u00a0for by Women\u2019s Aid as well as the wider VAWG sector, as\u00a0the removal of the cap will\u00a0allow for more women and children to leave refuges and restart their lives, following the ordeal of abuse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are concerned that the decision to freeze income tax thresholds further exacerbates the lack of financial support women need to escape abuse. Women\u2019s Aid research demonstrates that it can cost a survivor almost \u00a350,000 to flee and \u2018stay fled\u2019 from domestic abuse. While the maximum support available from the state is around \u00a340,000, many survivors would not be able to access this full amount. The deficit in financial support is twice as large for survivors who have no recourse to public funds. We continue to call on the government to commit long-term to the Flexible Fund and to carry out an impact assessment of the ‘Budget\u2019s key economic interventions on survivors of domestic abuse to better understand their unique needs. In addition, the introduction of a cap to pension contributions under “salary sacrifice” schemes means that any contributions above the cap would be subject to NI payments by both employees and employers; we are concerned of the impact this could have on specialist services, combined with the rises to minimum wage, on the sector\u2019s ability to retain workers and have financial stability. Once again, we continue to call for funding commitments that match the ambition of the manifesto pledge. Specialist domestic abuse services should be given the funding they urgently need to support women and children as they flee abuse and rebuild their lives in safety.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Women’s Aid responds to the Autumn Budget Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women\u2019s Aid, said:\u00a0 Despite the pledges made in the Labour government\u2019s election manifesto to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade, we are once again disappointed to see a budget that does not explicitly mention VAWG and domestic abuse.\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1322,"featured_media":49076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2082,2083,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external-affairs","category-policy","category-news","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n