WinVisible is joining this protest tomorrow. Join in person or on Twitter @NotSeparation @WinVisibleWomen

Support Not Separation say:

NO cut to Universal Credit! Protect mothers & children NOT violent men!

“The family court picket is back! Join us Wed 6 Oct, 12.30 – 1.30pm“ Outside London family court First Ave House, 42-49 High Holborn, WC1V 6NP “On the day the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit takes effect, we are back from lockdown outside the family court. Tens of thousands of children are taken into “care” every year. The cut to UC will have devastating consequences, especially for single mothers and our children. Children living in the UK’s poorest neighbourhoods are already 10 times more likely to be taken from their families or threatened with it. Child hunger, child removal, trauma and broken hearts are the expected result of this cut. ·       290,000 UK children will fall below the poverty line, adding to the 4.3m already living in poverty. ·       5,500 more children will be placed on “child protection plans” – not because of abuse but because of poverty, which social workers call “neglect”! ·       Thousands more children will be classified as “in need”.  This should lead to resources to keep families together (under Section 17 of the Children Act and under the Care Act 2014), but is used instead to trigger child removals. Families of colour, immigrant and disabled mothers are particularly targeted. ·       1,500 additional UK children a year removed from their families, feeding a lucrative fostering and adoption industry worth millions. ·       Children in “care”, especially in institutions, are often neglected and/or abused, do worse at school and are six times more likely than other young people to be cautioned or convicted of a crime. The truth about male violence, including by serving police officers, has begun to pour out. The family courts are a crucial institution which strengthens and promotes male power against women and children. Misogynist fathers’ groups are so embedded in the court system that abusive fathers can expect support from social workers, CAFCASS, psychologists, judges and police. Women reporting abuse of their children and/or themselves are accused of “parental alienation”, and the children we are struggling to protect are forced to have contact and even live with the fathers who abuse them and whom they fear. Our research found 76% of family court cases involved domestic abuse yet only 1% of all child contact applications are refused. Even the government’s own research has found women reporting abuse in the family court face “sexism, racism and classism”. Every week between two and three women, many of them mothers, are murdered by a partner or ex-partner. Over 60 children have been murdered by their fathers between 2004-2020 some during contact visits ordered by the courts. All too often, the family courts, like the police, are on the side of violent men. Open the courts! Chase male supremacist organisations and judges out of the family courts! Stop the Universal Credit cut! Mothers are entitled to the money to feed and protect our kids!“ If you can’t join us in person, join our virtual protest which will take place at the same time @NotSeparation