A new report from the domestic abuse charity Refuge has revealed that the conditions of lockdown in England and increased awareness about domestic abuse led to a 61 per cent increase in the number of calls to their official helpline.
Refuge runs a 24-hour national domestic abuse helpline as well as several online alternatives including live chat.
The report revealed that 72 per cent of the people the helpline supported were women experiencing violence and abuse, with the most common age bracket being 30-39.
In calls to the helpline across the whole of 2020, over four-fifths of callers (81 per cent) described being controlled by their partner, over half (58 per cent) had been subjected to physical abuse, almost a quarter (24 per cent) were being stalked or harassed and 40 per cent experienced some form of economic abuse.
The helpline team received calls from women who were being terrorised in their own homes, women who were afraid to seek treatment for their injuries in case they overburdened hospital staff, women whose court cases had been delayed, women making plans to flee the home and women with no home to go to.
Almost one in five of the women to whom Refuge spoke had experienced death threats from their abusers, 10% had weapons used against them and 16% had experienced strangling.
Lisa King, Refuge Director of Communications and External Relations, said: “For women and children experiencing domestic abuse, home is not a safe place. Lockdown measures, where women have been isolated and confined with their perpetrators more than ever, have compounded their exposure to violence and abuse.”
The report also highlighted statistics detailed statistics on the number of people the charity helpline helped during the lockdown. In that period, they made 4,481 referrals to secure refuges, signposted survivors to other specialist domestic abuse services in their communities 32,811 times and supported women to create safety plans 11,616 times.
More than 56,000 women were also provided with information about their rights, for example, around child contact, civil orders, reporting to the police, making an emergency homelessness application.
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