Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department decided on the amount of £39.60 per week as standard asylum support payments.

The Home Office reviews the level of the support allowances each year to ensure that they meet the essential living needs of asylum seekers and their dependants who would otherwise be destitute.

A report published in March 2018 sets out the methodology for assessing the appropriate level of the allowances used in the annual review and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/report-on-review-of-cash-allowance-paid-to-asylum-seekers.

The standard allowance was raised to £39.60 per week from £37.75 per week with effect from 15 June, an increase of around 5%. This increase was significantly higher than the general rate of inflation, which Office for National Statistics data shows was only 0.5% in the 12 months period to May.