Partnering to protect victims of domestic abuse
Robin Bulloch, Chief Executive Officer
| TSB
As the UN’s annual campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence gets underway, TSB is calling on parliamentarians to encourage more organisations – both public and private sector – to support victim-survivors of domestic abuse
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One in five people say they have experienced domestic abuse in their lives.1 So it’s highly likely someone you know is affected – a friend, a colleague, a constituent. As CEO of TSB – with around 5,000 colleagues across the country serving five million customers – the reality that so many of those who work or bank with us could be affected by this devastating crime is not something I’m willing to overlook.
It’s why I’m so proud of the TSB Flee Fund, which we launched two years ago now, to provide customers and colleagues who are victim-survivors with the funds and support to escape. As the charity Surviving Economic Abuse has pointed out, abusers often try to make this more difficult, by taking control of victim-survivors’ finances, and restricting their use of transport, mobile phones and internet access.2 Nearly a quarter of victim-survivors were prevented from leaving a dangerous partner because of economic abuse. The TSB Flee Fund helps people overcome these obstacles, with a non-repayable one-off payment of up to £500 to pay for essentials such as travel, accommodation, and food.
Over the past two years, the TSB Flee Fund has been used both by colleagues and customers – through our branches, on the phone, on video banking and our website’s Online Safe Space – to help more than 430 people, with an average payment of £363.
And those numbers don’t take into account that just under half of those also took children with them as they fled. It’s why we need more organisations – in both the public and private sectors – to consider the role they can play as a potential point of safety. And it’s why I strongly recommend that more employers consider joining the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse network.
The government pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade is a very welcome step. Tackling economic abuse is vital to achieving this, and embedding domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms as part of delivering ‘Raneem’s Law’ is a crucial step forward.3
But the scale of the problem means it is not one that government and law enforcement can tackle alone. I firmly believe that employers – be it businesses, charities, national or local government – must play their part too. Before that call to 999, that same individual may have been at the office, on a work call, in your shop or on your website. The sooner we can offer support and a route to safety, the sooner the abuse can end.
Protecting victims of domestic abuse is a shared responsibility across society. By working together in partnership across the public and private sector, we can help create an environment where people in danger know they can get the support they need – and escape the cycle of abuse and domestic violence before it is too late.
- Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview, Office for National Statistics
- In Plain Sight, Surviving Economic Abuse
- New measures set out to combat violence against women and girls, GOV.UK
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