Rising numbers of women are experiencing domestic abuse at Christmas, with calls to helplines still higher than pre-pandemic levels due to the cost of living crisis. Refuge, the leading support service in England, said calls and contacts to the national domestic abuse helpline in 2023 were still far higher than pre-pandemic, with 171,490 calls in the year ending March 2023. The charity is warning that Christmas, when there are always more incidents of domestic abuse, presents specific challenges such as social isolation and increased costs that are compounded by the cost of living crisis. Refuge’s Sarah Berry-Valentine said: “Demand for Refuge’s national domestic abuse helpline increased by a staggering 61% between April 2020 and February 2021, and recent data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that this demand has remained alarmingly high, with it still surpassing pre-pandemic levels. “The cost of living crisis is creating challenges that worsen the impact of domestic abuse on survivors as well. Frontline staff at Refuge have reported that the cost of living crisis is creating opportunities for, or is intensifying, economic abuse, which can include withholding funds, accruing debt in a survivor’s name and restricting a survivor’s ability to work. “Devastatingly, the increased cost of living has also meant that Refuge is seeing many survivors faced with the impossible position of choosing to stay with an abuser or risking homelessness and destitution.” The charity, which is running a Christmas appeal, noted that data presents the issue as being smaller than it is, as so much abuse is unreported. It has calculated that domestic abuse affects one in four women in their lifetimes, with two women a week killed by a current or former partner, and three dying by suicide. On average, it takes a woman seven attempts to leave an abusive partner for good. Women’s Aid, which is also running a winter appeal, said it was anticipating the 15% rise it usually saw immediately after the festive period. Sarah Davidge, the charity’s head of research, said this “demonstrates just how many women have been forced to spend what should be a happy time trapped in a potentially life-threatening situation”. “Additionally, due to many services – from GPs and pharmacists, through to offices and schools – running reduced hours, many struggle to access the help that they need,” Davidge said. One woman had contacted Women’s Aid through its live chat on Boxing Day after ongoing emotional abuse – including threats, intimidation, aggression and emotional manipulation – over a number of years from her husband. This came to a head when he left the house on Christmas Eve saying he wanted to kill himself because she had been cheating on him. He returned and started an argument that continued on Christmas morning. When she made a mistake at the dinner, her husband told her she was useless and stupid, that she did not care about their family, and was a “whore”. He threw a plate across the room, tore down Christmas decorations and started breaking the children’s Christmas presents, telling them, “you can thank your mum for that”. The verbal abuse continued throughout the day, but the woman had nowhere to go, and was worried her children would be unsafe around her husband, who was drinking throughout the day. Women’s Aid helped her work out a safety plan including emergency accommodation, and supplied contact details for her local domestic abuse service. The law firm Slater Heelis, which specialises in family law, said it had already seen the annual rise in domestic violence calls, which it said was up by an estimated 20% on last year, and 30% on 2019. Vicki McLynn, a family law partner at the firm, said: “The ongoing cost of living crisis is without doubt intensifying an already high-pressure time of year, resulting in an even larger surge than normal of calls to us where there has been domestic abuse. “At this time of year, we often see financial strain come into play as a real stressor and this year it is even worse, with a large number of people who are already struggling with the day-to-day cost of living getting into even more debt over Christmas.”