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Sexual abuse survivors at risk as funding cuts loom – support group
A sexual abuse support foundation says survivors are at risk as it braces for funding cuts in the new year.
HELP Auckland will have $380,000 less to work with in 2026, after the government announced it would redirect $1.7 million from the sector.
Sylvia Yandall, HELP’s Pasifika Services Manager, told RNZ the funding cut would force them to turn survivors away.
“If they don’t come under ACC, which is now the only pathway, there is no other source of funding that we have … So we will have to turn people away,” she said.
“It’s hard to put into words, really, because I know people this is impacting and this is really difficult for. The thought that people don’t get the help they need at a time when they’re brave enough to come forward to get that help is devastating.”
HELP Auckland director Kathryn McPhillips said the cuts came at a time when the number of sexual violence cases was breaking records.
“Sexual violence reporting has quadrupled since 2018, the circulation of child sexual abuse images is rapidly increasing, and prevention services are under threat,” she said in a statement.
“At the same time, funding is being pulled from the very services designed to protect children and support recovery. Community support has never been more critical.”
Yandall said a lack of access to support had ripple effects.
“It can impact their own children, and it has a massive impact on families because they don’t get the help or the healing they need to handle life.”
She said digital violence was another blind spot.
“[There’s an] increasing need for treatment for digital sexual violence, there’s so much online harm but unfortunately at this stage this doesn’t come under ACC,” Yandall said.
“So, again, people are not going to be able to get that help unless there’s some other funding that people can find to cover it.”
