Category Archives: Domestic Violence

Maintenance is used as a weapon all of the time – Gingerbread

Gingerbread has  published a joint briefing exploring the experiences of victim-survivors of domestic abuse with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). Developed in collaboration with Surviving Economic Abuse, Women’s Aid, and victim-survivors, it highlights serious gaps in support and safeguarding.

What are our key findings?

For many victim-survivors of domestic abuse, the CMS is the only safe route to securing the financial support their children are entitled to. It is therefore essential that it provides a trauma-informed and safe service. However, victim-survivors tell us that the CMS is failing to meet their and their children’s needs.

Instead, they describe a service that is weaponised by perpetrators of abuse to continue coercive control and financial abuse post-separation. Our research finds persistent challenges with the service, including weak enforcement, payment loopholes, inadequate safeguards, poor specialist support, and a reliance on parents with care to report and investigate fraud and non-compliance.

These findings echo our Fix the CMS report, published in 2024, which showed that the CMS is failing to protect people who have experienced domestic abuse and, in some cases, is making the abuse worse.

The government has recognised misuse of child maintenance as a form of violence against women and girls (VAWG) within their VAWG strategy, and has announced welcome reforms to the CMS, including the removal of Direct Pay and a reduction of fees. However, the legislation for these reforms is not expected until 2027/28, despite the urgent need for change. Additionally, the government needs to go further to ensure the system meets the needs of victim-survivors of abuse.

What are our recommendations?

Our research found that victim-survivors want reforms to the CMS to include:

  • Urgently introducing legislation that will enable the government to safely transition service users from the Direct Pay service to Collect and Pay.
  • Providing specialist developed and delivered training and support for CMS staff to consistently identify and respond to domestic, including economic, abuse, with a particular focus on how the CMS is used to coerce and control victim survivors.
  • Improving safeguarding processes and procedures to help survivors safely engage with the CMS to manage their children’s entitlements. This includes basic procedures for alerting survivors to any changes or contact with a perpetrator that could increase their risk of harm, and ensuring access to specialist, trauma informed support.
  • Using stronger enforcement of non-payment and fraudulent non-disclosure of earnings responses, including improved automatic maintenance calculations based on cross-agency information sharing, proactive monitoring and investigations that do not place a disproportionate burden on victim-survivors to report or prove fraud, and a zero tolerance approach to non-compliance. The reforms should also close loopholes that allow abusers to misuse the enforcement process to evade accountability and urgently introduce secondary legislation to implement commitments made in the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
  • Removing barriers to the Collect and Pay service, by guaranteeing that victim-survivors can remain on Collect and Pay indefinitely to safely manage their children’s entitlements and waiving Collect and Pay fees for all parents, so that they are not financially penalised for relying on the CMS to safely manage their children’s support.

Vaila McClure, Head of Communications and External Affairs at Gingerbread, says:

“This research shows how the Child Maintenance Service is too often being used as a tool for ongoing abuse, rather than providing the safety and support families need.

Failures in safeguarding and enforcement are allowing perpetrators to continue to control and harm families long after relationships have ended, leaving children without the financial support they are entitled to.

Whilst the government has acknowledged the problem, recognition alone is not enough. Urgent reform is needed to protect children and the parents caring for them.”

Part of a longer press release at https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/our-work/news-and-views/maintenance-is-used-as-a-weapon-all-of-the-time-read-our-new-joint-briefing/

April 23, 2026

The economic consequences of gender-based violence – IFS

Summarising recent work on the economic impacts of domestic abuse, sexual assault and workplace harassment.

Gender-based violence has not historically been a major area of study for economists. Yet, in parallel with sociology and the law, it is also an economic matter. It reduces labour market participation, deepens inequality, and limits freedom of choice. It can also be driven by economic factors: women’s financial autonomy is tremendously important.

This emerging and growing field of research, applying economic tools to the study of gender-based violence, can help to improve our understanding of this important issue, and improve our ability to predict and mitigate harm.

Much of the research to date has been conducted elsewhere – in large part due to the availability of high-quality administrative data. In places such as Finland and other Nordic countries, detailed police records can be linked to individual earnings and information about firms.

In the UK, research is hampered by the absence of such a link. In 2019 the Home Office estimated the economic and social costs of domestic abuse at £66 billion (Home Office, 2019), which the National Audit Office (NAO) estimated to have risen to £84 billion by 2025 (National Audit Office, 2025). However, the NAO also notes that there has not been an effective whole-system response. In the battle against gender-based violence, if we are to truly understand how to best prevent and reduce it, better data and further analysis would be a huge gain.

Full article https://ifs.org.uk/articles/economic-consequences-gender-based-violence

April 23, 2026

New research calls on housing providers to protect women and families from abuse and gambling risks – Nottingham University

The researchers conducted in‑depth interviews with women with lived experience of gambling harms and domestic abuse, as well as with support services and UK housing providers. They also surveyed housing providers to understand what data they captured about tenants’ experiences of gambling harms and domestic abuse, and the support they made available to women.

Key findings included:

  • Physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, financial abuse, and psychological or emotional abuse were all found to occur within the home – and even continue after women had separated from their partners.
  • Financial abuse, where partners stole money or used their identities to fraudulently obtain loans and build debt, landed women in inescapable circumstances, unable to pay for secure, safe, affordable housing elsewhere or obtain financial or legal support.
  • Despite debts caused by gambling resulting in rental arrears and mortgage default, eviction, and future housing instability, gambling is often overlooked in Housing Providers’ risk assessments and professional practice.
  • A lack of specialist knowledge among housing service providers is hindering the ability to identify abuse in the home and provide help.

To enable the housing sector to overcome these challenges, the research makes a number of recommendations for policy, practice and further research, including:

  • An increase in the provision of quality, affordable and secure housing.
  • Improving access to low-cost or free legal support and introducing protective public policy.
  • Greater training for sector professionals and taking action to tackle the social stigma surrounding gambling and domestic abuse.

Overall, developing a multi-agency approach to enhance prevention could better enable early intervention and crisis response, as well as provide an accessible route out of harmful living circumstances for those at risk.

Read the full press release at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/housing-providers-to-protect-women-from-abuse-and-gambling-risks

April 23, 2026

Domestic Abuse Commissioner responds to police reform white paper

On Monday 26 January 2026, the government published its police reform white paper, From local to national: a new model for policing.

Responding to the white paper, Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, said: 

“For too long, domestic abuse perpetrators have been able to enter and remain in our police forces with little to no consequence, breaking down trust with victims who rightly expect a robust response when they report domestic abuse.

“I have long called for the removal of officers with cautions or convictions relating to domestic abuse, and for stronger mandatory vetting standards to stop them joining in the first place. The new powers to tackle misconduct are a welcome and necessary step forward in protecting victims and survivors and rebuilding confidence in the police.

“I’m also pleased to see the introduction of more comprehensive public protection training which includes a focus on domestic abuse. Every 30 seconds the police receive an emergency call about domestic abuse, yet we know too often police forces do not get the basics right when first responding to victims. It’s critical that improvements to the frontline response from police officers, including their core skills, are looked at in the round and developed in partnership with survivors and the specialist domestic abuse sector.

“These reforms must be implemented without delay. I look forward to working with government and policing leaders to ensure these changes root out abusers from within their ranks and create a system which works for victims and survivors.”

Notes: 

  • Details of the government white paper can be found here.
  • Domestic abuse accounted for one third of violent crimes in the 12 months to 30 June 2025. (ONS)
  • Police forces allegations of police-perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA) over the 12 months to 31 March 2024 showed:
    • 1,294 allegations of PPDA; relating to
    • 899 individuals within the police workforce (0.4% of workforce including all officers, staff, PCSOs and Specials).
    • The vast majority of allegations resulted in ‘No case to answer’, ‘Suspension’ and ‘Learning outcomes’, and only 4% of individuals who had allegations of PPDA made against them were dismissed. (Shifting the Scales)

https://domesticabusecommissioner.uk/domestic-abuse-commissioner-responds-to-police-reform-white-paper/

February 17, 2026

2026 New Year Honours for Women Working for Women – none?

In previous years we have posted information about Honours awarded to women working domestic violence projects and support services for survivor of rape or sexual abuse.

This year we could not see any. If we are wrong please let us know.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-year-honours-list-2026

For New Year and Birthday Honours previously awarded see http://www.womensgrid.org.uk/?s=Honours+for+Women+Working+for+Women

January 19, 2026