Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum

SDAF is a charitable company working to combat domestic abuse. Membership of the Forum is free, and open to any agency or individual whose work ~ paid or unpaid ~ brings them into contact with domestic abuse. Members will receive regular information about local and national developments in relation to domestic abuse, details of our training and networking events and of the themed Domestic Abuse Working Groups.

This website will give you a flavour of the work that we are involved in, but please feel free to contact us with any specific requests.

‘No Recourse’ Benefit Evening Raises £650

The ‘No Recourse’ benefit was a great night with just about everyone dancing. Entertainment ranged from poetry to juggling with singing and live music rounding the evening off. The entrance fee and raffle raised £652.69 in total after costs, which is enough to make quite a difference in the lives of women and children fleeing violence with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (see more details about what the fund is for and how to donate below). SDAF would like to thank all the performers and everyone else who gave their time to make the night a success.

‘No Recourse’ Fund

The specialist domestic abuse services in Sheffield have set up this fund to help them to provide short term financial support and safe accommodation to some of their most destitute service users. Under current immigration rules, a woman who comes to the UK on a Spouse Visa, but has to leave him because of domestic abuse, is subject to the 2 Year Rule. Her abuser will usually have threatened that if she leaves him she will be deported, and she won’t be allowed to take her children. She thinks she faces a stark choice: deportation or continuing abuse.

The first challenge is to inform women that they can now apply under a Domestic Violence Concession for indefinite leave to remain in this country, in their own right. But the application can take up to a year, during which they have ‘no recourse to public funds’ such as benefits and public housing, making it even harder to leave. This No Recourse Fund is a very practical way to support those women to make safe choices for themselves and their children.

The ‘2 Year Rule’

If a woman comes to the UK on a Spouse Visa, she is dependant on her spouse for her right to remain in the UK. She is reliant on him as her ‘sponsor’, to apply within 2 years for her own right to remain. As she has ‘no recourse to public funds’ at this time, she is also financially dependant on him. If she is subjected to domestic abuse, she can be trapped in a very dangerous situation, with all the resulting impacts for herself and her children. In addition to the violence and abuse, a woman will often face isolation, language barriers, no access to information, no independent funds, no family other than her husband’s relatives, and often no friends ~ many women live in fear, thinking they have nowhere to go for help. For many women, their insecure immigration status makes them extremely vulnerable to abusive partners who exploit their position by subjecting them to often extreme forms of violence, imprisonment and domestic servitude, usually with impunity. Many abusers know that these women cannot report them to the authorities for fear of being sent back to their countries of origin where, as a divorced or separated woman, they are likely to face persecution from the state and society.

Most women’s refuges aim to provide safe housing to one woman at a time with no recourse, and fundraise to provide for her essential needs. But the demand for safe accommodation and living costs is far higher than the bedspaces and funding available.

What else can you do ?

If you are concerned about this issue, you can also find out about the national campaign to abolish the ‘no recourse’ requirement for abused women who have insecure immigration status: Campaign To Abolish No Recourse To Public Funds hosted via this website: www.southallblacksisters.org.uk

Individuals and organisations can affiliate to the campaign, and they are keen for supporters to tell local MPs what you think about the no recourse requirement, and ask them to support the campaign, which aims to get the Home Office to work with the Dept for Work & Pensions to find ways of providing benefits to women in this position.

What your money will pay for

Funds raised for the Sheffield Women’s No Recourse Fund will help ease the pressure on scarce local resources, by providing support with essential living costs for some of the most vulnerable and destitute women fleeing domestic abuse in Sheffield.

Once a woman succeeds in leaving, she will often need support from specialist domestic abuse projects and other services to:

• explore her options and consider what she might do next, with the aid of an interpreter where needed
• access accurate legal information about family law and her immigration status
• make her own application to change her status by applying for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ in this country, in her own right
• re-settle into a new home and community, and begin to feel safe again
• deal with the impact of domestic abuse on herself and her children, in order to re-build confidence and self-esteem.

The fund provides women with money for essentials such as food, toiletries, children’s clothes, public transport and so on. A donation of:

• £5 would buy a weekly bus pass for a child to attend school
• £10 would buy essential toiletries
• £20 would buy nappies and baby clothes

Any amount donated, as a one-off or a regular standing order, will make a difference.

Contact us to make a donation.