Written evidence from Name Withheld (WSN0026)

 

RE: Welfare safety net

I am submitting evidence from my own experience as a Domestic Violence Survivor.  I lost my home, assets and my career to violent controllers – yes plural I married on two occasions and fell victim to criminal perpetrator predators and manipulators. It is a complex relationship and for understanding I refer you to the TED lectures Crazy Love for you to hear the complexity of violent controllers on women’s lives. 

 

I have been campaigning to get Women’s Voices Heard as we need reparation for the criminal behaviour upon us and we need a strong and stable financial pathway of support on our journey of healing.  That platform of support at present is a very weak one with the DWP policies that have been ill thought out and are very dangerous to women survivors. Failure to support could lead to her returning to a perpetrator her next beating be her murder or committing suicide with the Post Traumatic Stress Depression.   There is an assumption when a woman is out of the controlling violent relationship that she is safe and able to work and life goes on.  But once out of the relationship it is the beginning of a journey to heal, detox from the ugliness of violence upon you and the rebuilding of a broken life.  You need to restore confidence before entry back into the work arena.  The work arena has bullies and she has been living with a bully so a woman must feel ready to re-enter the job market. I feel it is important to help women with an overlap of support when she is ready to work. Once settled she will be a valuable team asset and of course all the support paid in welfare will return in income tax, so this is not lost to the treasury.

 

Women are physically, mentally and financially abused by their perpetrator.  Women can have fallen from good career posts to being reliant on welfare support. But that support is fraught with inadequacies.  The inadequacies can make you feel like the system is now your perpetrator battering you down with the drops in support and going hungry and hassled with bills to be paid and threats of eviction. The inadequacies are:-

 

  1. Poor by law to survive on £73.10 a week and out of this pay housing benefit cap and council tax, gas electric and food!
  2. ESA for post traumatic depression is challenged by Work Capability Assessment rendering the GP assessment null and void. When considered fit for work all benefits can be stopped completely with P45 issued from the DWP!
  3. JSA can have sanctions for not finding work yet work applications not yielding short listing and offers.
  4. I was sanctioned for accepting volunteer work with the British Red Cross working with the poor in Hackney.  I was told this is not good enough you must find paid work.  I pointed out that I could follow online staff training which would led to possible paid work in Geneva and has I speak French and German would be great. – BUT I WAS SANCTIONED.
  5. All drops in support tethers you to the past pain and you can lay with flash backs in depression and feel every kick slap punch and hear all the horrid demoralising words your perpetrator put you through. 
  6. The only reason you are in need of welfare support is because of violence and abuse upon you and life shattered so failings of the system are constant reminders of the past.
  7. In my case I am also a 1950s born woman and denied a State Pension. This would have given me some peace and dignity from all the failings for the ESA and JSA.
  8. I have had periods of 6 weeks with no welfare money only a very small NHS pension of £66 A MONTH. Note when I do get ESA or JSA the amount I get is £43.10 a week titrated to that small pension to meet the law criteria of poor must survive on £73.10 a week.

 

I HAVE KNOWN WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO HUNGRY – only eating 3 good meals a WEEK not a day.  I came to parliament to an APPG Poverty meeting one time in committee room 14 looking out over to St Thomas’s hospital, where I was once a well respected midwife.  I told the APPG that day I was standing with hunger in my belly and £3 in my bank account. But I had to be a voice for not only me but all women survivors.  I feel we deserve better care than this.

I have had scurvy, crumbling teeth with vitamin deficiency and at Easter this year 2018 nearly died of Right Bronchial Pneumonia. My immune system so low from lack of diet that I had not responded to the week of oral antibiotics. My GP got me blue lighted into resus at Hillingdon Hospital. The doctors shocked at my poverty. I had IV vitamin therapy as well as IV antibiotics to help boast my immunity. I had food supplements and on a strict food chart.  I ate everything served me to get my strength back. Poverty is bad housekeeping of government as the spin off problems cost more.

You can learn a lot more from my blog which I did submit to the Home Affairs department for their Inquiry into Domestic Violence.  Sadly their report has not referenced my blog and they continue to focus on the immediate need of women been beaten.  What is failed to be recognised is the journey of healing and rebuild.  We have women that have been subject to criminal perpetrators for 15 years or more and then come out a wreck. It takes 5 – 10 – 15 yrs to rebuild in some instances. Our lives hurt forever with the experience.

http://womensvoicestobeheard.blogspot.com/

 

In our area we have women survivors being chased by bailiffs unable to pay their council tax with history of domestic violence and marital rapes, memory loss from repeated head battering.  A woman in her 30s with a rolator walking frame from her perpetrator breaking her back - she is on long term daily morphine for the pain – forever! We have young women with children going hungry trying to feed their children before themselves.  Unable to afford sanitary wear for personal hygiene and dignity.

 

THIS IS NOT THE MOTHERLAND I WANT THE UK TO BE… we need a better support of the vulnerable and traumatised.

 

I have spoken with Prof Rashida Manjoo the UN Reporteur for violence against women in war and peace time.. She says there is a STATE DUTY OF CARE to listen to women, help them rebuild their lives. There is a state duty of care to investigate the perpetrator and bring to justice reform his behaviour before release into society. With CPS cutbacks ref: Westminster Hall debate 2015 victims are being let down as perpetrators are NOT being prosecuted.

 

There a need to urgently reform the failings of the DWP and all the pathway for those that are survivors of domestic violence. I turn my pain into campaign and I am willing to speak with your committee. My MP is John McDonnell & Shadow Chancellor who is aware of all that has happened to me and my campaign.  I am is most active lobbyist.

 

December 2018