The government has cut millions of pounds in funding for victims’ services, prompting warnings that “criminals will go unpunished” unless it urgently changes its position.
The Victims’ Commissioner has written a letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves, shared exclusively with the Observer, saying a combination of funding reductions and the upcoming employers’ national insurance increase was creating an “existential crisis” for charities. The commissioner and charities in the sector are calling for an urgent funding increase in the next spending review, which concludes this spring.
“These crucial services ensure victims have the support they need to recover from crime and stay engaged in the pursuit of justice,” Baroness Helen Newlove wrote.
“Without this support, prosecutions will falter, criminals will go unpunished, and we risk jeopardising a sense of security and justice in our communities… the failure to prosecute may contribute to further offending.”
Rape Crisis England and Wales said it had already shut two of its centres, and Victim Support, which works across all crime types, estimates it will have to lose more than 80 staff and help 5,000 fewer people a year.
Groups supporting rape and domestic abuse victims say the cuts will undermine Labour’s manifesto pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
In her submission to the Treasury, Newlove warned that thousands of victims stuck in record court backlogs “might not last the distance” without support and that others may never feel able to report offences to the police.
She added: “The need for victim support services has never been greater, yet these services are facing an increasingly precarious position.To honour its manifesto commitment on VAWG [violence against women and girls] and fulfil its Safer Streets mission, the government must act swiftly and decisively to safeguard these vital services. The cost of inaction is a price this nation can ill afford.”
Charities have not been exempted from the employers’ national insurance increase announced in the autumn budget, and in December the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) informed police and crime commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales that the core grant for victims’ services would fall by 4.2% in April.
Victim Support estimates that the combination of national insurance rises and cuts to PCC funding will amount to a loss of £3.5m loss in the next financial year, equating to 84 full-time posts and 5,000 fewer victims receiving support.
The Home Office has axed a separate “support and specialist services fund” for violence against women and girls which began in 2022, telling charities it would end in March because it needed to “prioritise within a limited budget”.
The fund made up a significant portion of annual funding for the Jewish Sexual Abuse Support charity, which said it now fears having to cut trained advisers who support victims through court cases.
The charity’s chief executive, Erica Marks, told the Observer: “So many of our clients tell us there’s no one else – if we cease to exist, then what? They’re self-harming, they’re suicidal, they’re hearing voices, what option are we leaving people with?”
Marks accused successive governments of “failing to back up” years of pledges to tackle sexual abuse with adequate funding, adding: “If the government claims they understand the depth of the problems, they’re not showing it in their actions.
“I don’t understand the disconnect between saying violence against women and girls is a priority and taking away this kind of funding.”
About a fifth of the victims seen by the charity go on to contact the police after receiving support. Marks said it was “very clear that reporting will decline” as a result of shrinking services.
Rape Crisis chief executive Ciara Bergman said that two of its centres have been shut in recent months because of “acute and chronic underfunding” and others are reducing the services they provide, which include specialist psychotherapy and counselling.
“These services are too often framed as a wash-up end point of a criminal justice process, and that’s entirely wrong,” she added. “They’re actually the entry point to the criminal justice process a lot of the time – the loss of services translates into people not being able to disclose abuse.”
Bergman said that while some funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence support had been ringfenced, PCCs would have to make “difficult decisions” due to the reduction in their core victim services grant.
“We all need more funding and there’s desperate competition,” she said. “We can’t understand how the government will be able to halve rape and sexual violence if those services aren’t there.”
Some PCCs, who have had responsibility for funding victims’ services using government money since 2014, are trying to mitigate the looming cuts using separate budgets.
But the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ leads for victims have warned of a national “real terms decrease in central government’s financial support for victims of crime”.
The Victim Support charity warned of a “perfect storm”, as a growing number of people need support because of years-long waits for court cases. Chief executive Katie Kempen said the charity had “nothing left to trim” and would have to make cuts from the next financial year onwards because the vast majority of its funding comes through police and crime commissioners.
“It means we’re going to be cutting staff and reducing hours across most of our services,” she added. “Closing our doors to vulnerable victims is the last thing we want to do and we’re calling on the government to reverse the cuts and increase the Ministry of Justice grants to cover the national insurance rise.”
A government spokesperson said: “We are determined to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, which is why we have given police across England and Wales a £1bn boost to restore neighbourhood policing, in addition to confirming over £190m in support for the next financial year for a range of organisations supporting victims of crime.
“We will not stop until we have a system that protects victims, supports their journey to justice and holds perpetrators to account. We are committed to supporting organisations that help victims of crime, building on our activity over the last six months, to better protect victims and pursue perpetrators.
“This includes launching new domestic abuse protection orders, starting the roll-out of domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, strengthening the police response to spiking and stalking, and pioneering a truly cross-government approach to tackling these issues.”
• This article was amended on 2 March 2025 because an earlier version attributed to Rape Crisis a figure which came from Victim Support.
