The end of lockdown is just the start of the domestic abuse crisis

The number of people – particularly women – seeking help for domestic violence soared during the coronavirus lockdown. We’ve known that for a while. But there has been an assumption that as lockdown eases, so will the pressure for abuse victims. New figures from the charity Refuge suggest that this assumption is wrong. 

In June, the National Domestic Violence Helpline saw a 77 per cent increase in calls, while there was a 54 per cent rise in the number of women needing a place in a refuge from the last week in June to the first week in July. 

As I wrote in the magazine in April, charities were worried that even if they were given enough funding to cope with the rise in demand for their services during lockdown (which they weren’t), they wouldn’t be able to cope with their own second wave of cases, as lockdown restrictions eased and victims found it easier to ask for help and flee violent partners.