Public meeting in UK Parliament
The Welfare Reform Bill, currently going through Parliament, seeks to abolish Income Support and instead make almost everyone seek jobs as a condition of receiving benefits. The government says 30% of women have suffered domestic violence. Income Support is a crucial entitlement ensuring the basic human right to survive -- for mothers who are victims of domestic violence, their children, and other vulnerable people, young and old. This Bill would force traumatised women escaping domestic violence to look for a job or face sanctions, denying them time to recover. As a result of lobbying, the government agreed a three-month respite from job-seeking after domestic violence, but this is not enough. A single mother active in WAR who fled domestic violence describes how it took many months to get herself together after leaving her violent partner.
“You can’t really put a time limit as if everyone was the same…It is very much down to how each individual heals and if they heal at all…Also you may be able to exit this relationship physically but that doesn’t mean that the abuse stops there. You are in a mental prison after having been controlled for so long…Being forced into a work situation prematurely has a very high risk of backfiring. I am certain that the crime rate would increase and so would the suicide rate…To me it seems that victims of violence keep getting victimised…” Read her statement.
The Bill would also bring in compulsory joint birth registration, which grants violent ex-partners greater rights over the child and unwanted involvement with the mother. Mothers who refuse to name the father if “good cause” is not accepted could be fined, or even imprisoned for seven years for deliberately giving false information.
The Bill will be debated again in the Lords when Parliament comes back in October. What you can do: sign our open letter, read the Briefing and write to your MP, and any Lords you may know of, urging them to oppose this Bill.
