Women Against Rape oppose the Benefit Cap — how about you?
Launch of petition to Scrap the
Benefit Cap
which traps women and children in
violent relationships.
In support of legal challenge to be heard
in early 2014
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WAR outside the High Court in Oct 2013
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Women Against Rape (WAR) and others are launching 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 in early 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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