Asylum seeker
support move quashed
Campaigners have won a High Court battle challenging the level of
government financial support for "struggling asylum seekers".
A judge
quashed the decision by Home Secretary Theresa May not to increase the level at
which cash payments are made for essential living needs and ordered her to
reconsider.
The ruling
was victory for a number of organisations led by Refugee Action, which said
there was a striking disparity between subsistence payments for asylum seekers
compared with those given to people receiving income support.
Mr Justice
Popplewell, sitting in London, said Parliament was told last June that the
level of support for adult asylum-seekers and their children would be frozen
for the financial year 2013/14.
The judge
said it was a decision to set rates at a level which involved "a reduction
in real terms from what was regarded in 2007 as the bare minimum level
necessary to avoid destitution".
He ruled the
decision legally flawed, adding: "In my judgment, the information used by
the Secretary of State to set the rate of asylum support was simply
insufficient to reach a rational decision to freeze rates."
He ordered
the Home Secretary to reach a new decision by August 9 on the amounts to be
paid under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
He said the
amounts should be decided in accordance with the guidance given in his
judgment.
The ruling
was a victory for a number of organisations led by Refugee Action, including
the Children's Society, Freedom from Torture, Still Human Still Here, and the
Refugee Council.
They took
action after research showed that many asylum-seekers are struggling to cope on
the current rate of support.
The support
is paid to individuals while they await a final decision on their asylum
applications. During this period the immigration rules do not normally allow
them to take jobs to support themselves.
Evidence of
their alleged difficulties was provided for the legal challenge by asylum
applicants who were later accepted as refugees or given other forms of
permission to remain in the UK.
The Red
Cross and Helen Bamber Foundation also provided evidence of the impact poverty
was said to be having on them, with statements submitted from torture victims
still suffering from trauma, parents with young children, and those living with
a health condition.
The
campaigners say that when the support system was introduced, the Government
stated that the level of support to be provided under section 95 was to be set
at 70% of income support levels for adults.
Until 2008,
the rates were broadly increased in line with increases made to income support
payments. Then the link was broken, and since April 2011 there had been no
increase at all.
It was
submitted that this had led to a striking disparity between the level of
support provided to asylum-seekers compared with those given income support.
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