A woman trying to start a new life, having fled her abusive husband and moved into her sister’s old home in Barnsley, feels the system is failing her.

Because she now lives with her sister she is no longer eligible for housing benefit; something her sister described as “one of the deciding factors in her going back” to the abusive household.

A new report by the Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence and Multiple Disadvantage states that “despite the resilience” of women and children, “systems are failing these women, at an unforgivable price to them and wider society”.