The government is making it easier for men to financially control their partners by paying universal credit into one household account, an MP has warned.

Philippa Whitford, the SNP's health spokesperson, is among the campaigners and charities piling pressure on ministers to rethink the "shocking" policy in the upcoming domestic abuse bill.

Prime minister Theresa May announced a 12-week consultation on the bill this week, including a new statutory definition of domestic abuse, which includes economic abuse for the first time.

BuzzFeed News reported last month how domestic abuse survivors are being forced by banks and building societies to attend in person with their abuser in order to close down joint accounts.

Now it is being claimed that the government's own welfare system is making it harder for women to escape domestic abuse.

Universal credit, the controversial new system being rolled out across the country that combines a series of benefits into one monthly payment, is paid into one single bank account per household.

Campaigners believe this makes it easier for abusers to control their partners financially, as they are more likely to be in charge of the household account.

Whitford has tabled an early day motion, so far signed by 30 MPs, and a private member's bill calling on the government to instead pay benefits to individual recipients as standard.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does offer split payments on request. But research by Women's Aid suggests that the vast majority of women in abusive relationships feel that requesting this would trigger even more abuse.

Whitford, a former consultant breast surgeon who became an MP in 2015, told BuzzFeed News: "When I was elected and first started to look into it, I was just really shocked at this.

"The idea that the benefit entitlement of a woman would be automatically paid to her partner, it’s like going back to the ’50s, a very bizarre approach.

"Changing this doesn’t get rid of financial control but why on earth would a government be making it easier by just popping the money into the male partner’s bank account?"

