Frontline services are concerned the rising cost of living will see an increase in family violence, at a time when they are struggling to manage current demand.
Centre Against Violence chief executive Jaime Chubb said the organisation was starting to see a spike particularly around high-risk and complex cases.
The centre operates throughout north-east Victoria, providing family violence crisis and case management, and sexual assault services.
Ms Chubb said while it was hard to quantify, the "sudden and quite dramatic increase in costs" had correlated with an increase in demand of around 5-10 per cent for the centre's services.
"It's also increasing the risk. It's harder for people to leave if they've got less resources," Ms Chubb said.
It comes as services are already stretched and staffing shortages are "massive".
"As a whole sector we're struggling to recruit people to fill positions," Ms Chubb said.
"It's particularly challenging in regional and rural areas."
Compounding factors 'everywhere'
Women's Health Goulburn North East chief executive Amanda Kelly said frontline family violence services should be expecting an increase in demand.
She said the association between family violence and economic stress and insecurity was well known in the sector, and the main driver was "outdated gender stereotypes".
"We have this underlying assumption that men will provide, [and that] in times of crisis men will fix things," she said.
"[Men] don't always feel they can reach out for help, we don't always have help available to them."
However, Ms Kelly said it was not always helpful to think of the relationship between financial stress and hardship and domestic violence as causal, because it was an individual's choice to use violence.
She said there were "compounding factors everywhere in our region", including the pandemic, recovery from the Black Summer bushfires, and increasing financial pressure.
A 'complex' association
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) researched economic insecurity and intimate partner violence during the first year of the pandemic in Australia.
Its report — funded by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) — found economic insecurity was associated with an increased likelihood of intimate partner violence among women.
ANROWS chief executive Padma Raman said the research showed a clear relationship between economic security and women's safety, but the relationship was a complex one.
"It's difficult to compare the effects of cost of living increase with the effects of natural disasters and pandemics," Ms Raman said.
AIC research manager Hayley Boxall said the research showed how economic insecurity was working in different ways in different kinds of relationships.
She said there was often a perception that family violence was a "poor people problem" but the reality was more nuanced.
Among women who had previously experienced violence at the hands of their partner, the violence became more frequent and severe if they had experienced an increase in financial stress, regardless of their actual economic status.
The impact of financial stress is an "everyone problem", even among families and relationships that seemed well off, Dr Boxall said.
She said the rising cost of living and its impact on violence within relationships "should be treated as seriously as any other major financial event".
And unlike natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, such changes happened incrementally, but it was "going to incrementally start impacting everyone in severe ways".
Financial stress makes it harder to leave
According to Dr Boxall, this risk needs to be treated seriously not only in regard to the occurrence of domestic violence, but also how people leave such situations and recover.
Ms Raman also noted the dual impact of financial stress and hardship.
"Women's financial dependence on perpetrators is a significant barrier to leaving."
Ms Chubb said the standard advice given to women living in a volatile household or thinking about leaving was to always have a full tank of fuel in the car in case they needed to leave, but rising petrol costs had made simple advice like that that less practical.
Survivors of family violence who leave the home are also often forced to grapple with a lack of available housing.
"Right across Australia, but particularly in rural and regional areas, we have a significant housing shortage, and skyrocketing rents," Ms Kelly said.
Ms Chubb said family violence was a complex area, and "we're living through a really complex time".
