Support for Asylum Seekers
The Home Office now administers benefits and accommodation for asylum seekers through their National Asylum Support Service (NASS). With few exceptions those seeking asylum are excluded absolutely from obtaining support from the welfare state. To qualify asylum seekers have to show that they are without adequate accommodation and unable to support themselves to the extent that they are destitute.
The support is based on providing the equivalent of 70 percent of the value of income support and dispersing them out of London and the South East to areas where there is a ready supply of empty properties. Initially it was possible to opt for maintenance only, allowing applicants to remain with friends and family settled in the south of the country. Recent reforms prevent this opt out and applicants either take the package of funding and accommodation or nothing at all.
Under Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, to ensure access to NASS assistance it is imperative that claims for asylum are made ‘as soon as reasonably practicable’ after arrival in the UK (currently defined by the Home Office as within 72 hours of entry) as a failure to do so may lead to a refusal of all forms of support and accommodation for the duration of the claim. Where this refusal occurs, assistance will only be reinstated if it can be established, on an application for judicial review, that the decision was unlawful, or the applicant’s physical and emotional condition deteriorates to a point at which a breach of Article 3 of the Convention can be established. It should be noted that it became clear early on that the Home Office practice was to interpret Section 55 very strictly and many asylum seekers found themselves without food or shelter. As a result there have been a number of higher court challenges around as to whether someone has claimed asylum quickly enough, as well as what point the Article 3 ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ threshold is met once someone has been refused support and becomes destitute.
There is no right of appeal against a refusal to provide support and the only way of challenging such a decision is by using judicial review. In some circumstances, if there is a real danger of a vulnerable person becoming destitute imminently, which may breach his or her rights under Article 3, the court may grant emergency injunctive relief compelling the Home Office to accommodate him or her.
Where support is granted the applicant will remain eligible for assistance until the exhaustion of the application and appeal process, and for 21 days afterwards.
Legislation now allows the Home Office to fulfil its obligation to support and accommodate asylum seekers by placing applicants in what are euphemistically known as ‘accommodation centres’, but are in reality little better than open detention facilities. No centres are currently in operation.
