Yvette Cooper refuses to cease promising £49 per week to asylum seekers | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has rejected calls to take down an official authorities internet web page promising asylum seekers a house and £49.18 money each week within the UK. She pledged to get immigration down a “record high of more than 900,000 under the last Conservative government” as she set out plans together with revoking visas for overseas criminals and reforming citizenship guidelines by making migrants wait 10 years somewhat than 5 to use for indefinite depart to stay. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer introduced the insurance policies earlier within the day and Ms Cooper then introduced them to Parliament.

But the Home Secretary was challenged to elucidate why there’s a web page on the official www.gov.uk authorities web site promoting the advantages asylum seekers can count on to obtain if they arrive right here. Under the heading “what you’ll get”, the web page guarantees: “You can ask for somewhere to live, a cash allowance or both as an asylum seeker.”

It says: “You’ll be given somewhere to live if you need it. This could be in a flat, house, hostel or bed and breakfast. You cannot choose where you live. It’s unlikely you’ll get to live in London or south-east England.”

The internet web page then has a piece with the heading “cash support”.

It says:”You’ll normally get £49.18 for every particular person in your family. This will provide help to pay for belongings you want like meals, clothes and toiletries. Your allowance will probably be loaded onto a debit card (ASPEN card) every week. You’ll have the ability to use the cardboard to get money from a money machine.”

However this determine will probably be diminished for asylum seekers positioned in lodging the place they’re given meals, the net web page says. It says: “If your accommodation provides your meals you’ll get £8.86 for each person in your household instead.”

And it says even people who find themselves refused asylum is likely to be given a house and assist shopping for important objects.

The internet web page says: “You’ll be given: somewhere to live, £49.18 per person on a payment card for food, clothing and toiletries (or £8.86 per person if your accommodation provides your meals).

“You will not be given: the payment card if you do not take the offer of somewhere to live, any money.”

Questioning MS Cooper within the Commons, Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty stated the web site “is there for any aspirational English-speaking asylum seeker to see.”

But the Home Secretary merely attacked the Tories, saying: “We have inherited an asylum system in complete chaos.”