Asylum: Finance

(asked on 16th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information she holds on the progress on the roll-out of the Aspen card; and what percentage of those planned to receive that card have received it to date.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 21st June 2021

If a service user is eligible for asylum support and a payment card but has not received their card, they have been advised this should be reported to Migrant Help as per the existing published process and guidance for service user concerns or issues.

Migrant Help will forward the concern onto the relevant operational team to investigate and action a replacement card, if needed, as well as issue an Emergency Cash Payment (ECP) to cover the period until the card arrives and is activated.

Service users can also contact their accommodation provider who have been instructed to reach out to service users known to not have activated their cards. Through these checks, accommodation providers are actively ensuring service users have both received their card and activated accordingly as well as self-authorise ECPs accordingly.

Finally, service users can also reach out to any third sector representatives/voluntary sector partners to escalate an issue on their behalf. Third sector colleagues have a direct escalation route to Home Office teams where they can direct issues (such as the need for replacement cards and issuing ECPs to service users) for Home Office colleagues to investigate and action.

The vast majority of service users have now received their new Aspen card, activated it and have been using it successfully since the service went live on Monday 24th May 2021.

Numbers are fluid as activation numbers continue to increase on a daily basis as well as having new eligible asylum seekers coming into the system over the same period of time.

We are proactively working with partners to ensure any eligible service users receive their new Aspen card and activate it successfully. In the interim, Emergency Cash Payments (ECPs) are being provided to support their critical needs.

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