Track the low levels of support asylum-seeking families receive

Posted 15 February 2013, 0 comments

By Gavin Thomson, Campaigns Officer From our Campaigns team Follow @@gavinthomson

Use our interactive graph to see the varying levels of support for nine different families.

For the past several months we supported a parliamentary inquiry into support for families in the asylum system. The inquiry's findings paint a desperate picture of vulnerable children, forced into destitution and treated with a complete lack of human dignity. 

We support the panel’s recommendation for an immediate end to the system that means asylum seekers must survive on no cash at all – instead, they get a tiny amount of money on a special card, meaning they can't do basic things like use the bus to get to hospital, or save up for a coat to keep their child warm in the winter.

We're calling for asylum support rates to be brought into line with basic benefit levels. Right now, they are much lower, and put families way below the poverty line. 

If you want a society that treats all children with basic human dignity, please email your MP today.

See for yourself

How far below the poverty line can families on asylum support fall?

Use our interactive graph to see the varying levels of support for nine different families. The graph tracks the poverty threshold for a family, as well as the different levels of support the family would receive, depending on whether they were on mainstream poverty benefits or one of the two types of support - known as Section 4 and Section 95 - for asylum-seekers.