The Domestic Abuse Report 2022
The Domestic Abuse Report 202:2 The Annual Audit gives an overview of the domestic abuse support services available in England, and including provision and usage, during the financial year 2020–21.
© Women’s Aid, March 2022
Please cite this report as:
Women’s Aid (2022) The Domestic Abuse Report 2022: The Annual Audit, Bristol: Women’s Aid.
Key Findings
- Most women accessing services have children: 60% of service users in community-based services (CBS) services had children and 5.9% were pregnant. 59.7% of women in refuge services had children and 7.3% were pregnant. There were 42,598 children of service users in the sample, averaging 1.2 children per service user across all services.
- Immigration status and the associated challenges in accessing benefits continue to be significant barrier for women who are trying to access support: 30% (1,223) of those who weren’t British nationals did not have access to public funds and 9.5% did not know if they had recourse to public funds.
- Abuse can take a range of different forms and can last for a significant length of time: The length of abuse experienced ranged from less than a month to 66 years; the average was
six years. 88% of a sub-sample of service users had experienced emotional abuse and 66.6% had experienced jealous or controlling behaviour. 37.6% of service users disclosed having support needs around their mental health; for service users in CBS, this was 36.3% and for those in refuge services this was higher at 49.2%.