Benefit Cap traps women in violent relationships
From Women Against Rape
| Please sign urgently.
The legal challenge this petition supports is coming to court on 28 & 29
January. The petition has just under 500 signatures. We need as many as possible.
Signatories include:
Dr Bridget Anderson Natalie Bennett, Leader Green Party Dr Lynn Bindman JP Zena Edwards, poet Dr Charmian Goldwyn Selma James, Global Women’s Strike John McDonnell MP Mrs Jessica Mccarnun, Bedroom Tax campaigner Waveney Women’s Aid - Jenny Webber Women’s Health Project, South London Splitz Support Service - Jacqueline Mundy Dr Felicity de Zulueta |
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Dear friends,
The benefit cap is
trapping women and children in violent relationships. A legal challenge
in defence of women who have already been affected will be heard on
27 and 28 January at the Court of
Appeal.
What you can do:
·
Sign the petition to scrap the cap NOW,
get your organisation to endorse it, like it to you friends on facebook
and twitter – we need as many signatures as possible.
·
Join the protest outside the court on 27 & 28 January, 9.30 am,
Royal Courts of Justice, Strand WC2A 2LL.
·
Listen to Kim Sparrow from Single Mothers’ Self-Defence,
who has endorsed the petition, on
BBC Radio 5 Live
about the reality of the Benefit Cap. (Starts 1:08 minutes into the
show, move cursor along.)
Like it to your friends.
Petition to Scrap the Benefit Cap
which traps women and children in
violent relationships.
In support of legal challenge to be heard 27-28 Jan 2014
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WAR outside the High Court in Oct 2013
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Women Against Rape (WAR) and others have launched a petition asking
the public to support women and children impoverished by the Benefit Cap
after escaping violent relationships.
A legal challenge on behalf of affected families will be heard in the
Court of Appeal on 27 and 28 January 2014.
Solicitor Rebekah Carrier
describes the Cap as ‘catastrophic,
cruel and arbitrary’.
Please sign online
here
For more information about the petition
contact WAR
Tel: 020 7482 2496 war@womenagainstrape.net About the legal challenge: Rebekah Carrier, Hopkin Murray Beskine.
Tel: 020 7272 1234
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· One
third of women have suffered domestic violence. Every week two women
are killed by partners or ex-partners, in England and Wales.
· The
Benefit Cap limits a family’s total benefit to £500 per week, including
rent and Child Benefit. Extortionate rents, including for some refuges
and hostels, leave mothers and children with little or no income to live
on.
· A
test case is being fought in court on behalf of families impoverished by
the Benefit Cap after escaping violence. So far, there is no exemption
from the Cap for victims of violence.
· Many
victims of violence are unable to get a job immediately or to move to a
cheaper area – they need to stay close to friends and relatives for
support, and time to recover and to reassure distressed children.
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Women Against Rape was among
the groups demonstrating at the High Court in October. We heard in
court what the mothers and children have gone through, including living
for years in rundown housing.
They are represented by
Rebekah Carrier of
Hopkin Murray
Beskine, who describes the Cap as catastrophic, cruel and arbitrary:
"Two of the families have fled domestic violence in circumstances where
they were financially reliant upon their abusive partners, and they now
face a stark choice between descending further into poverty and risking
losing their homes, or returning to their abusers in order to escape the
imposition of the cap."
Lisa Longstaff
of Women Against Rape says:
“We
call on the government to put the safety of women and children first by
lifting the Benefit Cap so no one is trapped in a violent a relationship
where they risk injury, trauma and even death.”
The petition is endorsed by the Black Women’s Rape Action Project, Legal
Action for Women, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, WinVisible (women with
visible and invisible disabilities) and Women Against Rape.
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