LESSONS LEARNED? HOW GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS FAILED PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM AGAIN

Today 24 November 2021, Asylum Matters, in partnership with 18 organisations, has launched a new report,
The report looks at the catastrophic impact of another mishandled contract transition by the Home Office, this time for ASPEN cards, which left people seeking asylum without access to their only form of financial support, in some cases for over a month. In the run up to May 2021, when the contracts for these cards were due to change hands between providers, the Home Office was warned repeatedly about the grave impact of getting this transition wrong.
Predictably, a series of missteps by the Home Office left people seeking asylum living in poverty and uncertainty. Drawing on the evidence and experiences of 18 partner organisations based across the UK, who supported people during the ASPEN transition, and the InfoHub survey conducted by the team at Refugee Action, the report found that:

Looking ahead, the provisions within the Government’s #AntiRefugeeBill will inevitably create further new contracts, whether running offshore asylum processing centres or warehouse-like “reception” accommodation centres. While the multi-billion pound companies that run them will make a profit, people in the asylum system risk being left in severely substandard accommodation, treated without dignity or respect and left in poverty or even homelessness while charities and the voluntary sector pick up the pieces and in essence subsidise these contracts.
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