London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jul 21, 2025

Thousands of domestic abuse survivors denied help after legal aid cuts, study finds

Thousands of domestic abuse survivors denied help after legal aid cuts, study finds

Exclusive: Research calculates proportion of domestic abuse cases funded by legal aid has fallen from 75% to 47% in 10 years
Tens of thousands of domestic abuse survivors have been “forced to continue living under the shadow of their abusers” in the decade since access to legal aid was scaled back, research suggests.

About 34,000 people are estimated to have been denied support allowing them to seek orders to help remove attackers out of the family home or prevent them from returning at will.

The House of Commons library also calculated that since the law was changed 10 years ago, the proportion of domestic abuse cases funded by legal aid had fallen from 75% to 47%.

Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general, blamed the “wilful cruelty” of the coalition government, which she said had been “perpetuated by their successors in the current cabinet”.

She added that urgent reform of the legal aid system was needed to “avoid a second lost decade for the survivors of domestic abuse and their children”.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing, and Punishment of Offenders Act was introduced in May 2012 and sought to impose capital and income limits for applicants for civil legal aid.

On the 10th anniversary of the legislation coming into effect, the Commons library was asked to review the impact. It found that real-terms spending on civil legal aid for domestic abuse cases had fallen by 37% from 2010-11 to 2020-21.

Officials said it was “not possible to say exactly how many people have become ineligible who would otherwise have been able”. But they found the ratio of domestic abuse cases that received legal aid compared with those without it fell from 0.75 in 2012-13 to 0.5 in 2020-21.

If the ratio had stayed the same, the Commons library forecasted that 41,000 more people would have been eligible for legal aid in domestic abuse cases.

Excluding roughly 17% of recipients who are alleged perpetrators, it concluded: “Around 34,000 alleged victims might have been eligible for legal aid since 2012-13, were it not for the changes brought in.”

The true number could be higher, the findings said.

A note about the statistics added it was “likely that some people are put off applying to the family court to settle matters where domestic abuse is involved because they already know they are not eligible for legal aid”.

Thornberry said the law change had been pushed through by ministers who were “hellbent on driving through their austerity agenda on the backs of the most vulnerable in society, even at the expense of their duty to protect the safety of women”.

She said tens of thousands of women were being “forced to continue living under the shadow of their abusers”.

Thornberry added: “We need urgent reform of our legal aid system to avoid a second lost decade for the survivors of domestic abuse and their children. We cannot have another 10 years when those women desperately turning to the government for help against their abusers find the door slammed in their face.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “More than 95% of applications for legal aid in domestic abuse cases are successful and we are making millions more people eligible through our changes to the means test.

“The Domestic Abuse Act is transforming our response to this terrible crime – redefining economic abuse, improving protection for victims and bringing more perpetrators to justice.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×