London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 28, 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
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×