Asylum support for young people

The cross party parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people has published a report into how asylum seeking children and families are supported by the Home Office.

The enquiry received written submissions and oral evidence from over 200 individuals and organisations. Key findings and recommendations from the report include:

• Those on the lowest rate of support (Section 4) only receive their allowance on a card, meaning they get no cash, leaving them unable even to take the bus to the doctors or take their children to school
• Evidence received by the inquiry cited counts where children of those who were or had been in receipt of asylum support made up between 13-20% of the local destitute population
• Current levels of support provided to families are too low to meet children’s essential living needs, with evidence of families living on £5 a day and parents going without food to feed children who they could not afford to buy winter clothes for.

The report also made several recommendations to government including making sure asylum support for all children is in line with mainstream benefits, abolishing the cashless system immediately (‘Section 4’) and allowing parents to work so they can provide for their families and prevent them from being pushed into destitution.