Charities deal with surge in domestic abuse calls

CALLS TO domestic abuse charities soared during lockdown, but a report has warned that victims in BAME communities are being overlooked.

Various figures showed that while calls to police over domestic abuse rose only slightly in lockdown, calls to charities soared, suggesting victims were seeking help more discreetly.

More than 40,000 calls were taken by the National Domestic Abuse Helpline since the beginning of the lockdown, it was revealed this week.

Meanwhile, charity Refuge, which normally logs 270 calls a day, saw a 77 per cent increase during June.

York-based charity Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS) also saw calls rise by 10 per cent week by week over the lockdown period – spiking by 69 per cent in one week – as well as “significant increases” in visits to its website and live chat services.

A spokeswoman for IDAS said: “On average, calls to our helpline have increased by 10 per cent week by week over the lockdown period. However, in some weeks the requests for support have been as high as 69 per cent above last year’s week-by-week totals.

“There was a decline in the number of requests for support on our helpline. This suggested that people affected by domestic abuse were finding more discrete ways to access information and support.”

It comes as a report warned that women in BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities were overlooked when it came to support for domestic abuse. The report, published by

The View magazine, which advocates for women’s prison reform, said six in 10 victims fleeing domestic abuse in shelters were BAME.

Jane Keeper, from Refuge, said: “While we cannot draw immediate conclusions from this, what it does tell us is that women have remained with their perpetrators during lockdown, which may explain why we’ve seen an increase in the numbers of concerned third parties who have contacted us to seek support.”