The Crime Survey for England and Wales 2016 found that between 7% and 9% of 16 to 59 year olds in the UK had experienced physical, sexual and psychological abuse in childhood and that nearly 32% of adults with a long-term illness or disability had experienced abuse as a child; stating that “adults who were economically inactive due to a long-term or temporary sickness or illness were more likely to have experienced abuse during childhood when compared with economically active adults”. Professor Alexis Jay’s 2022 IICSA report, Part H: Supporting Victims and Survivors, also discussed survivor anxiety while attempting to access support services, including benefits.
The DWP and childhood abuse survivors
Despite these statistical and factual correlations between childhood abuse and health-related poverty in adulthood – and the ready availability of organisational training in survivor support – the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has consistently failed to safeguard, protect and support survivors of childhood abuse and other significant personal traumas; ignoring at every level the UK government’s own definition of trauma-informed practice, which includes the six core principles of “safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration”.
This is perceptible and apparent in every aspect of the department, from the design of job centres – which claimants describe as intimidating, leading to heightened distress – all the way through to the department’s consistently poor record of safeguarding, leading to the deaths of vulnerable claimants, the process of forced re-assessment of claimants with lifelong conditions, and the Labour government’s recent attempts to justify cutting disability benefits by falsely portraying claimants as ‘drains on the economy’ and ‘fraudsters’; closely followed by Rachel Reeves’ statement in 2015 that “we’re not … the party to represent those who are out of work”.
Deprivation, humiliation and re-victimisation
Many disabled survivors of childhood abuse or other trauma are thus exposed to the constant message that they have no place in society and that there can be no protection from ongoing suffering, abuse and neglect because they have no intrinsic worth; an attitude that appears to be deeply embedded into every aspect of the DWP.
The result is systematic vulnerability to further trauma, powerlessness and abuse in the form of continued neglect, enforced deprivation and psychological harm from survivors’ only possible source of safety and financial support. It is therefore incumbent upon the DWP to prevent further harm by implementing the principles of trauma-informed practice at every level of its organisation.
Why the DWP needs to act NOW
The individual and wider socio-economic benefits of such long-overdue institutional change are clear. Rather than subjecting survivors to what feels like further humiliation, shame and punishment for a situation in which they find themselves through absolutely no fault of their own, the DWP must enable survivors to feel safe, valued, helped and respected for the very first time in their lives.
If survivors are given the unconditional security and support that they need and deserve, then they will – as so many are already trying to do – contribute to the economy of their own accord; without the perceived ‘necessity’ for constant harassment, deprivation, intimidation and abuse from the very department that is supposed to be helping them.
Sources of support, information and advice:
- National Association for People Abused in Childhood
- Mind
- The Samaritans
- Winvisible.
- Scope.
- The Disability News Service
- Disability Rights UK
