Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding her Department has made available to prevent abuse of older people in each of the last 10 years.

Tackling abuse is a key Government priority. There is ongoing work across government to tackle abuse of older people, including by the Department of Health and Social Care. The Home Office oversees specifically policy related to domestic abuse.

Domestic abuse is deeply harmful, not only because of the profound effect it can have on victims, survivors and their loved ones, but also because of the harm it inflicts on wider society. This Government recognises that, although anyone can suffer from domestic abuse, for older victims, abuse may be more hidden and disguised or compounded by other age-related factors such as ill health.

The Home Office has funded Hourglass, a specialist elder abuse charity, for a number of years to enhance their helpline, provide casework support, and train specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advisers. For financial years 2018/19 through to 2020/21 we provided Hourglass £50,000 per annum. An additional £106,000 was provided to further bolster their services as part of the response to the Covid-19 crisis, to ensure victims could continue to access support. In 2021-22, the Home Office provided Hourglass over £200,000 to support their work in enhancing their helpline, providing casework support, and training specialist IDVAs, with over 3000 victims being supported in 2021-22 alone. Again in 2022/23 we provided Hourglass £50,000.

In 2021/22, Hourglass supported over 3,000 cases.

In relation to future funding, the Domestic Abuse Plan commits to over £140 million for supporting victims of which £47 million will be ringfenced for community-based services to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, including, but not limited to, older victims.