Worrying situation

What do the costs of £5 cover? Is that just food and shelter or does that include any healthcare, any schooling or other outlay such as their claim for asylum?
Is that per taxpayer presumably?

blogs.redcross.org.uk/refugeesservices/2015/04/asylum-in-the-uk-adding-up-the-true-costs/

This was last April.
I was staggered to find that asylum costs the British person less than £5 a year. That's less than twopence a day.
Think about it.

I did search extensively before posting. I'm pretty sure the cuts have not been implemented, but that doesn't help us understand how it works when some or all meals are provided.

Exactly.

Elegran the links confirm the £36.95, but I don't know how it works when meals are provided and whether vouchers are still in use, or if the payment card replaced them.

I did google Asylum seekers benefits UK originally, but couldn't make out whether those who receive housing and food get any money or not. Still can't!

All this information is online, you just need to search for it. I put in Asylum seekers current entitlements.

That should be researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01909/SN01909.pdf

Also - www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/roap-benefits.pdf

and - researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01909/SN01909.pdf

www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get

I wish there was someone on here who knows the current entitlements.

No, I think they get a small allowance, but I'm not sure how much.

I think the full board thing is partly because of the shortage of suitable properties. Asylum seekers don't get housed in council housing, unless it's a hard to let property nobody else wants.

My knowledge isn't up to date, so I can't remember all the details.

Wouldn't those same charities provide them for all refugees?

Ana. I would imagine there are charities providing these.

So if they have meals provided, what do they do about clothing and toiletries?

I'd to just clarify that if asylum seekers are getting their meals provided, they don't get the £36.95 too.

£36.95 is the amount a single person gets for food, clothing and toiletries and it's given as vouchers, not cash. Asylum seekers get a maximum of 70% of what someone on Income Support would receive.

If someone could give more information I think it would take some of the heat out of the discussion.

I'm sure there are some who wish that the media hadn't got hold of this story. Because now, the Border agency are looking al some of these asylum seekers.

A wristband seems fine to me; lots of people wear them, I was wearing one not long ago which probably looked red. It had red poppies on it.

Yes, we are absolutely horrible Stansgran, and should be ashamed of ourselves for giving people refuge, a roof over their heads and food while they wait to see if their claim is genuine or not.

Given that a LOT of people wear wristbands nowadays, for all sorts of reasons, many of them social conscious reasons, I don't think the wristband idea is a bad one for speedily recognising who qualifies for a meal. Looking at papers is simply impractical. For a start you'd need more people than you need to qickly check whether someone has a wristband.

Wristbands are not nasty badges. My daughter wears wristbands. So do her friends. I very much doubt if it's the wristbands that "set off" the horrid people who apparently abuse refugees.

I think this is a lot of fuss over a little, sensible, practical thing which, like refugee status, is a temporary, coping mechanism.

Anyone who thinks it was a terrible idea should come up with a better system. "Papers" is not a better system because it takes longer to assimilate the information. A wristband or other badge is like a graph: all the information you need in a very simple format.

Oh we are such a horrible collection of people aren't we? We take in these refugees and only give them three meals a day and only 40 quid a week . All the while trying to sort out paper work and jobs. They' d be better off in the camps in France or on the inflatables in the Med wouldn't they? I have read the story of a Jewish schoolboy who was taken in here to school. I don't know if I can find the link but really comparing what is happening now to refugees in this country with the struggle of those who made it here on the kinder transport is insulting IMO to those who actually went through the holocaust.

Ana Some are in self-catering with weekly supermarket vouchers and some in "full -board" accommodation with three meals a day provided

"The operations director of Clearsprings Ready Homes, said: “The UK has, over recent months, seen a larger population of asylum seekers. In turn volumes of people in initial accommodation sites, including Cardiff increased quickly."

"Clearsprings has taken steps, agreed with the Home Office to increase capacity in line with this demand in the form of additional self-catering accommodation."

“Those clients in the self-catering units receive a weekly allowance in the form of supermarket vouchers and those in full-board accommodation are issued with a coloured wristband that bears no other logo or text identifying its use or origin. Full-board clients are required to show their wristbands in order to receive meals in the restaurant.”

They are queueing outside the centre for their food. Is it quicker to look at their papers or to glance at a wristband?

Do their papers have a photograph?

I thought they got £39.50 a week.

Did you have your photo taken, and fingerprints taken to go to this holiday camp?

Don't be ridiculous, petra. You're talking about people who can still be sent back to war zones as if they are on holiday.