Labour Refuses to Reveal How Much Money Asylum Seekers are Getting
Labour has refused to reveal how many top-up debit card payments have been made to asylum seekers after it emerged some were using the money for gambling. The Telegraph has the story.
Steve Barclay, a former Conservative minister, accused the Home Office of trying to avoid scrutiny after his requests for the data were rejected three times.
Asylum Support Enablement Cards (also known as Aspen cards) offer financial support for basic necessities like food, clothing and toiletries. A claimant in self-catering accommodation typically receives £49.18 each week via a Visa debit card which enables users to withdraw cash as well as pay for in-store purchases.
However, concerns have been raised over their use, including the disclosure that some had been used to make gambling payments.
Up to 6,537 asylum seekers have used the government cards at least once in the past year in venues such as bookmakers, amusement arcades and casinos, according to figures released under a Freedom of Information request. Attempts to gamble online using the cards were made, but were blocked each time.
Mr Barclay, who was charged by Boris Johnson with overseeing efforts to tackle the small boats crisis, said: “Either the Home Office is intentionally trying to avoid scrutiny, or they simply don’t know – either of which is damning.
“There have been real concerns about the use of Asylum Support Enablement Cards and the public have a right to know exactly how often taxpayers’ money is being sent to them.
“They could be one of the many pull-factors that is fuelling the small boats crisis, which is even further out of control under Labour.
“The only way we can tackle it is through tougher measures, and to do this we will need to be out of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Mr Barclay has asked a series of Parliamentary questions over the past six months to try to extract information on the number of top-up payments made to Aspen cards. Yet on three occasions, he said the Home Office has refused to answer.
Worth reading in full.
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Stop calling them asylum seekers. The only reason they’re here is because they can get something for nothing.
These are grown men who have basically zero regard for society, especially British society. They are happy to take hands outs, lie and probably steal. We all know people like this, we know the ones who cheat the system regardless of other people.
Just heard that there has been a further cull at the Home Office. That ugly dwarf Eagle – gone, also Diana Johnson/Johnstone? also gone and Dan Jarvis [who are these people?] remains but will split his time with the Cabinet Office. It seems that more and more of these leftards are being given dual roles. That speaks volumes about how useless the backbenchers must be
But the retard who claimed nearly all the illegal immigrant scum arriving by dinghy are women and children is still there.
These people are not asylum seekers. They are criminal invaders sponsored by a British Establishment which hates the native peoples of our islands, and which wants to see us gone from the Earth. I’ve met genuine asylum seekers – mainly from the former Marxist hell-holes of Eastern Europe – and they were always reluctant to be here, and always wanted to return to their homelands, and never demanded hand-outs from the British taxpayers.
I think if I was seeking Asylum, I would be on my very best behaviour, thankful to the nation I was applying to, and not taking the p**s.
Just as the waves of Huguenots, Jews and Ugandan Asians did.
Not the recent ones.
yet another reason why liebour have to go there must be a general election and uless there is we can expect more of the same FACT….be sure to check out and read carefully a petition on the uk government and parliament petition page…call an immediate general election…it currently has 879,119, signatures it urgently needs many more and YOU can help in getting them first be sure to sign it and most importantly be sure to reshare it widely all over the uk…northern ireland/scotland/wales/england/… with as many like minded people as you possibly can and be sure to ask each one of them to do exactly the same as im asking you to do
Perhaps Mr Barclay would like to tell us how much money the Not-a-Conservative-Party, under Johnson and Sunak, was giving these criminal migrants?
Nah, thought not.
Why are they being given money at all? surely a weekly supply of basic food ingredients and toiletries such as soap, toothpaste and washing powder should suffice.
What ever it is it’s too much
Well taxpayers, you certainly have a right to know where your tax pounds are going. Keep asking. This horrendous gov’t must be transparent or they sill fall.