Women's helpline misses 10,000 calls for help

Over 10,000 calls to a domestic violence helpline went unanswered last year due to a lack of resources, a leading women's charity has said.

Announcing its figures today, Women's Aid said 25,843 calls were made to its helpline in 2005, an increase of 30 per cent on calls made to the service the previous year.

But the charity said two out of every five calls to the service - or a total of 10,504 calls - could not be answered due to "diminishing resources".

Staff who man the helpline responded to 15,339 calls in 2005, an increase of 26 per cent on calls responded to in 2004.

A majority of 57 per cent of callers complained of emotional abuse while 28 per cent of calls referred to physical abuse.

Up to 6 per cent of calls related to sexual abuse which the charity says is often not disclosed by women experiencing domestic violence.

There were 371 rapes within relationships being reported to the service.

There were also a significant number of calls relating to abuse during pregnancy ranging from being beaten to miscarriage; being forced to stop breastfeeding; being kicked in the stomach; having boiling water thrown at her stomach.

One-fifth of abusers were ex-husbands or ex-partners.

Director of Women's Aid Margaret Martin said she was heartened that so many experiencing domestic violence were availing of the helpline.

Ms Martin said: "The number of calls to our service has almost doubled in the last 4 years, but there has been absolutely no increase in resources".

"Yet the number of calls which we cannot respond to is increasing year on year, there has been a shocking 73 per cent increase since 2002. Some of those calling us are in urgent need of assistance."

She said it is unacceptable that we cannot respond due to lack resources, despite numerous pledges from the Government, our funding remains static.

An analysis of the calls to the helpline showed 9 per cent related to economic abuse which ranged from "having to account for every cent spent with receipts to refusing to pay for medical treatment if the woman or children are sick".