UK: Universal credit changes 'raise domestic abuse fears'

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2015-02-20 06:46

Article here. Excerpt:

'The committee said it shared fears raised by women's groups that the system would "reduce the financial autonomy of women" and could leave domestic violence victims vulnerable to further abuse.

A new domestic abuse offence of "coercive and controlling behaviour"', which can include the abuser preventing their victim from having access to money, was announced by the Home Office last year.

In its report, the cross-party group of MPs and peers recommended the government reviewed the payment of universal credit to couples.

They suggested that the government should test different payment methods, "such as automatic split payment to each partner in varying proportions - so as to assess which best protects the financial autonomy of women in couples - thereby strengthening their position should domestic violence occur".'

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Right from the get-go. And if course, a female partner'd *never* evince such behavior herself. Never.

This plan may be a bad idea for other reasons. Not for me to say since I am not a constituent nor have any other tangible interest in this policy idea in the UK. But as a member of the presumed suspect group in the abstract being used as the basis of an argument about the policy, I do have this much of a dog in the race, and he barks like this: Bite me.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2015-02-21 19:47