evidence: I believe the importance of supportive employers will only increase as the rates of domestic abuse skyrocket. Before Covid-19, an estimated one in four women and one in six men experience abuse in their lifetime. Rates have further worsened with the pandemic, to the point where it’s been labelled ‘an epidemic beneath a pandemic’. National lockdowns have meant we have all spent more time at home. Unemployment, financial insecurity, anxiety and stress have also been rife; conditions known to aggravate domestic violence. Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse helpline, reported a 60% increase in messages and calls between April 2020 and February 2021. [...] The 24 Hour Domestic & Sexual Violence Helpline (Northern Ireland) The 24 Hour Domestic & Sexual Violence Helpline (Northern Ireland) offers referral to a range of services to all women, men and children affected by domestic & sexual violence.