Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's timescale is for the change of provider of the ASPEN card for asylum support payments.

As part of the COVID-19 contingency measures introduced by the Home Office, the transition to the new ASPEN card was postponed to enable the Department to focus on handling the operational challenges that the pandemic was causing on the wider asylum support system.

However, the current contract has been extended to ensure there is payment service continuity during this challenging time. The new card service provision is scheduled to be in place by the end of May 2021.