Home Office bans asylum seekers living off £10 a week from buying armoured cars
The Ministry of the Interior prevented the use of state support on what asylum seekers described as luxury goods and non -compulsory services, and published a list of banned purchases from toys and audio books to armored vehicles and boat rentals.
According to a leaked home office document, the rules, which came into force on August 11, apply to the “Aspen Card” system with pre -paid £ 9.95 per week. For self -employees, this allowance goes up to £ 49.18 a week.
Restrictions include hundreds of expenditure categories, including furs, fireworks, fortune -tellers, aquariums, library fines, and even photocopy. In order to buy these products, attempts to use prepaid cards result in a decrease in sales.
No institutions condemned the policy by not touching the realities of life on such small amounts of money.
Steve Smith, CEO of Charity Care4Calais, Guardian: “This list shows how politicians are with the realities of life for people looking for shelters in this country. People seeking asylum seek less than 10 £ 10 a week. They receive less than 10 £ 10 per week in financial support.
He added that these rules are “to make life as difficult and as miserable as possible, for people looking for shelters in England ve and that he described it as“ morally disgusting ”.
Campaigns also warn that the blocked list is at risk of reducing access to services that are far from exaggerated. Products such as visiting toys or libraries can provide comfort and stability for children and families waiting for asylum claims, but now it is now restricted under the new system.
Authorities acknowledge that some basic services may be caught accidentally, and a separate examination examines whether the rules can be made more accurate by targeting individual traders rather than all categories.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said: “The ministers have recently ordered the review of the Aspen Card system to investigate and address abuse reports.
“As a part of this review, the list of permissible expenditure categories was immediately reviewed to ensure that the financial support provided to asylum seekers is absolutely used for basic life needs.
“After the ongoing examination is completed, we will announce more changes in the current system.”
