A research report we published on Friday confirms the worries we at the Refugee Council had about the Azure card when it was first introduced. As well as limitations with where the card can be used and what can be bought with it...I should bloody well hope so! When a government is handing you 'free' money, taken on threat of imprisonment from the taxpaying population, don't start moaning that there are restrictions on it...
...the card often just does not work at the checkout...Boo hoo! This can happen to any card. So what?
We have heard countless horror stories from our clients trying to use the card. Take Violet, for example. She lives in asylum accommodation in south-east London and has no choice but to leave her children at home while she walks three miles to the nearest eligible supermarket for her weekly shop – without cash, she can't buy a bus pass, and the card does not work at the local store at the end of her road, which, incidentally, is also the cheaper option.Forgive me, but we are expected to believe that every single one of these asylum seekers is being hunted by evil forces, forced to take refuge in a country far, far away, chased and harried and in fear of their lives, are we not?
On top of this, her oldest child has had to start school without a uniform...
In fact, the usual guff we hear in 'case studies' from the Refugee Council make the Hobbit's flight from the Nazgul in 'Lord of the Rings' look like a Sunday stroll in Hyde park.
So I fail to see how a three-mile walk from her free accommodation to collect the food which is paid for - again - by other people is so much of a damned horror story...
But above all these technical difficulties, one of the most distressing things our clients recounted is the feeling of shame and stigma using the card has caused them. Hostile attitudes from shop staff, and being labelled as an "asylum seeker" by being the only one with such a card, contributed to feelings of isolation and anxiety among 56% of our respondents.Cry me a river. Cry me the bloody Danube!
Of course, this is an outrage that must stop, say the Refugee Council.
What, precisely, are they waiting for?The payment card system has to stop. We understand these are hard economic times for everyone, and we are not asking for a rise in levels of support (though at around £5 a day it is a wonder how they manage). So the taxpayer won't have to fork out any more for this group. We are simply asking for a change to the way it is being distributed – for these asylum seekers to be given their support in cash, like any other benefit. That way they could spend the money as they wish, allowing them to live in dignity while they wait to return home.
If it's becoming too arduous to collect their free money, Heathrow is thataway, and Gatwick is over there. Up there is Manchester Airport, and down in Kent, Dover awaits.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
And strangely, this (or a watered down version of this) seems to be the prevailing opinion in the comments, too. Strange times we are living in....
8 comments:
I have some concerns but shame upon us if we permit children to go hungry or humiliate those in search of a peaceful existence.
Yes, the scheme will attract some cheats and layabouts; so what's new?
Does not seem any more 'humiliating' than having free school meals and anyway 44% of the recipients don't give a toss, why are the others so precious?.
The comment from poverty pimp Hong7 on the Cif comments thread is priceless.S/he mentioned that s/he was involved in administering benefits to asylum seekers a decade ago, and had some misgivings about doshing out money to people who could have been chancers instead of 'genuine refugees'. However when hearing critical comments from those s/he disparages as the Daily Mail brigade, any reservations s/he had about doling out money to possibly undeserving foreigners evaporated, and s/he returned to the warm showerbath of publicly funded compassion !
I wonder if Hong7 is still in the taxpayer funded compassion business, and perhaps sees fewer job opportunities for himself/herself if we ever get a grip and return these 'failed asylum seekers' to their own (or neighbouring, if required) countries ?
Giving cash or card is irrelevant - we do the card thing (vouchers) with student hardship money. Given you can get twice the food in Lydl why do we give Sainsburys? The kids flog the vouchers for cash anyway. So will immigrant chancers.
Only middle class donkeys could believe such a scheme could ever work. Such schemes only hurt the deserving poor - they never cure fiddles. You could sell milk tokens when we had them.
I agree with Melvin - we forget our compassion and first principles at great risk - but underlying it all I wonder how we end up with administrators like the ones behind such schemes. They disgust me more than the liberals up Julia's nose - but note, only 'more'.
It's time to stop immigration dead, until we sort out the country, and form reasonable policies about other places sorting themselves out.
They don't like the way they are forced to spend money extorted from taxpayers, many of whom are struggling to keep their heads above water? Diddums!
If they really are here as they were in fear of their lives back home I would think a 3 mile walk to get free stuff would not be such a hardship.
As you say, if they don't like it here, go away.
"...but shame upon us if we permit children to go hungry or humiliate those in search of a peaceful existence. "
I'll put up with that 'shame'.
Personally, I believe there's far, far more shame in neglecting our own so we can dance on the world stage, crying 'Look at me!'...
"...anyway 44% of the recipients don't give a toss, why are the others so precious?"
Maybe that's how we should sort the sheep from the goats?
"The comment from poverty pimp Hong7 on the Cif comments thread is priceless."
Indeed! I sometimes wonder if the more erratic commenter aren't plants...
"...I wonder how we end up with administrators like the ones behind such schemes."
Because abject failure is so often rewarded with promotion to move you out of harm's way, and make you someone else's problem...
"The "Azure" card is intended to pay for "food and essential toiletries only", and can only be used in stores selected by the Home Office – these include Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Boots, Peacocks and Morrisons."
That addresses the main problem (as I understood) with the previous voucher system, namely that only mini-markets would sell them, that vouchers had to be spent in full at once and that claimants consequently bought groceries at inflated prices.
I don't like yet more state largesse paid for by taxes, but this does seem to be a relatively efficient form of hosing money up a wall.
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