Truth: Destitute asylum seekers whose accommodation includes meals are eligible for £8.86 a week, which comes on a prepaid Aspen card. If they’re placed in accommodation without free meals, they have a weekly allowance of £49.19. There are some small additional amounts available for young children and pregnant women.
Over 10,000 people have shared an image on Facebook with text claiming “every illegal immigrant” receives a card “pre-loaded with £175” which is renewed weekly by the Home Office. It also claims this money is in addition to three free meals a day.
But this is incorrect for several reasons.
The text in the image says: “This is a Home Office ‘Aspen card’. It’s given to every illegal immigrant upon arrival at their hotel, pre-loaded with £175.00 (renewed weekly by the Home Office).
“They can spend it in shops, or withdraw it as cash. It’s free spending, on top of their 3 free meals a day.”
A screenshot of a webpage with information and a photo of an Aspen card (which stands for Asylum Support Enablement) has been shared alongside it.
One post sharing the image has the caption “What a bloody disgrace”.
Similar posts have gone viral before and we debunked those claims in September 2022 and January 2023. You can find more of our work checking claims relating to immigration and asylum seekers on our website.
What is an Aspen card?
An Aspen card is a prepaid debit payment card given to certain eligible asylum seekers—some of whom may have arrived in the country illegally—by the Home Office.
The card is not automatically given to “every” asylum seeker, as the post suggests, but those who have been deemed destitute are eligible for an allowance on the card as well as somewhere to live. As we’ve written before, people seeking asylum are not able to claim normal benefits and are usually not allowed to work while their application is being processed.
The amount of money loaded onto a person’s Aspen card each week depends on whether free meals are provided by the accommodation they have been assigned to. However, an asylum seeker would not get as much as £175 per week, especially if, as the post suggests, they are receiving free meals.
If free meals are provided with their accommodation, the weekly allowance is £8.86 per person in the household. This is to cover “essential living items that are not met by their accommodation provider (clothing, non-prescription medicine and travel)”. Aspen cards can’t be used for contactless, telephone or internet payments or overseas.
If meals are not provided by the accommodation, the weekly allowance is £49.18 per person in the household.
According to the charity Migrant Help, asylum seekers in full-board accommodation receive their Aspen cards three weeks after their application for support has been granted, while those who don’t receive meals will receive it as soon as they arrive at the self-catered accommodation.
There are some additional weekly payments available to certain destitute asylum seekers. Women who are pregnant or the mothers of a child aged 1 to 3 receive an extra £5.25, and those with a baby under one receive £9.50. There is a one-off £300 maternity payment available for asylum seekers who are expecting a baby in 11 weeks or less, or if a baby is under six months old. In “exceptional circumstances” asylum seekers can apply for additional support.
Accommodation
The post refers to asylum seekers living in hotels, which is one type of accommodation they could be placed in as well as a flat, house or bed and breakfast. People do not have a choice about where to live and the government website says: “it’s unlikely you’ll get to live in London or south-east England.”
Hotels are often used as initial accommodation that is intended to be short term, but significant delays have meant people have stayed in these much longer.
