Protect children from forced destitution

This week (23 April), former children’s minister Sarah Teather MP, with support from a number of cross-party MPs, called for the law on asylum support to be changed.  This important issue, which affects thousands of children across the UK, too often goes under the radar.

Earlier this year, The Children’s Society supported Sarah Teather as she chaired a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people. After receiving evidence from more than 200 individuals and organisations and hearing first-hand accounts from parents and children of their day-to-day experiences, the inquiry found that devastatingly low levels of asylum support are pushing more than 10,000 children and their families into extreme poverty.

Despite the rising cost of living, successive governments have failed to increase support for families and children seeking asylum in the UK. As a result, rates of asylum support have dropped far below the poverty line, despite these families having no other means of support. They are not allowed to work and they may not claim such mainstream benefits as child benefit, income support, disability living allowance or housing benefit. Some families live on less than half of what the government thinks is acceptable for British children and families in the UK.

These are families seeking safety from war, violence and persecution. In some cases they receive just £5 a day per person, which means they can barely put food on the table or clothe their children. Those who are on the lowest form of support from the Home Office get no cash. They receive their allowance on a card, which can only be used in designated shops. As a result, they cannot even buy milk at the corner shop, take the bus to the doctor's or their children to school. 

One young asylum seeker whom The Children’s Society has helped, Riyya (not her real name) was 11 when she and her disabled mother claimed asylum in the UK. Because her mother could not walk, Riyya had to take care of her as well as do all the shopping and cleaning. Despite her mother’s disability, they were not given any extra help from the Home Office or local authority, and their flat was not adapted to meet her needs.

As a result, Riyya often had to miss school in order to take her mother to appointments and was regularly asked to interpret for her mother, including by solicitors and doctors. Her support worker made a number of referrals to children’s services and adult social care but they were consistently refused. They tried to register with a number of different GPs but were turned away for being asylum seekers.

Sarah Teather’s call for the government to change how people seeking sanctuary in this country are supported is vital. Asylum support should be assessed every year, taking into account inflation and adjusting the support levels as necessary so it is in line with mainstream benefits. And the cashless system of card-based support, which keeps so many children and families below the poverty line, should be abolished altogether. To help achieve this, The Children’s Society is calling for all MPs to end forced destitution once and for all.

Matthew Reed is chief executive of The Children’s Society