Join The Sun on Sunday’s Save Our Shelters campaign to stop closure of life-saving refuges for domestic violence victims

FOR the victims of domestic violence, Christmas is not magical – it is a ­terrifying time when the ­number of attacks by abusive partners rises.

Two of these women are killed each week in England and Wales — yet despite this shocking ­statistic, the Government wants to scrap funding for life-saving refuges, which could result in HALF of them closing.

Today The Sun on Sunday is calling for a halt to the plans so these vulnerable women — and their children — can be kept safe.

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Last night Women’s Aid chief executive Katie Ghose saluted our campaign and said: “A domestic abuse shelter isn’t just a bed for a night — it is a vital lifeline for thousands of women and children.

"If the Government goes ahead with its changes, more women and children’s lives will be put at risk.”

Our campaign also has the backing of actress Dame Julie Walters, 67, and the sons of tragic Claire Hart, murdered by her husband Lance, 58, before he turned his gun on himself.

The killer also shot dead their 19-year-old daughter Charlotte after an ambush in July last year.

Luke, 27 — brother of Ryan, 26 — said: “Our mother and sister experienced years of severe emotional abuse, but because they didn’t have physical wounds they felt they couldn’t go to the police.

“People experiencing domestic abuse need to be supported so they can safely escape.”

The brothers, both engineers, told of the close bond between their sister and mum and described them as selfless people “obsessed” with dogs.

Claire had survived ovarian cancer when her children were in their early teens and had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003.

Ryan and Luke helped Claire, 50, a supermarket assistant and Charlotte, a university student, move out of the family home in Spalding, Lincs, to a rented home — but four days later they were killed.

Now the brothers want to make sure other women feel safe when they experience the same abuse that Charlotte and Claire suffered.

One in four women are affected by domestic violence during their lifetime, yet ministers want to remove refuge hostels from the ­welfare system.

That would mean women would no longer pay with the housing benefit that currently accounts for 53 per cent of total refuge funding.

As a result, the last guaranteed source of income for refuges, run by charities such as Women’s Aid, would be removed.

Domestic violence services have been under pressure for years. In 2015 The Sun launched the Give Me Shelter campaign, which resulted in a £3.2million funding boost.

But the problem has escalated — and now the proposed removal of housing benefit will slash services.

More than two thirds of women in refuges have escaped from outside their local area, in fear of their ­perpetrator hunting them down.