Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 11 May (HL3390), what plans they have to include consideration of extending the current weekly validity of the Aspen card for asylum seekers alongside the quantum in the current review.

The asylum support cash payments are currently made on a weekly basis. There has been some suggestion that these payments should be made fortnightly, and we are currently seeking views on this issue.

We are currently reviewing the level of the cash payments, as we do each year, to ensure that they remain capable of meeting the essential living needs of asylum seekers and will announce the outcome as soon as we can.