It is now a well documented fact. The Azure payment card leaves many living in hunger and deprivation.
It was introduced at the end of 2009 to replace the use of supermarket vouchers for asylum seekers whose claim had been refused but who were still unable to return to their country.
The card is topped up weekly with £35 for a single person and can be used in a limited number of supermarket outlets. It cannot be exchanged for cash, and only £5 can be carried over to the next week.
Unspent credit
What seems extraordinary is that Immigration Minister Damian Green announced in Parliament yesterday that the estimated amount of unspent credit recovered from the Azure card in its first year of operation was a massive £650,000.
What does this tell us? That asylum seekers on Section Four support, with no other form of income, don’t need their £35 a week? Unlikely. More probably, the system is confusing and poorly explained.
One refugee support agency says, “We had somebody who hadn’t understood about not being able to carry over money and, because he’s only had the letter in English and hadn’t understood it which is hardly surprising when you read the letter, and he’s then decided to go shopping every two weeks. So when he went on the second week he found that £30 had been wiped off his card.”
And one of our clients who uses the Azure card says, “The money I receive every week on the card is only enough to buy food – I cannot afford to buy cleaning products, clothes etc.” (SRC client)
Backed up by research
Our report, Your inflexible friend: the cost of living without cash, brings to light a wide range of problems caused by having to use the card. Problems include people being unable to buy enough food to feed themselves and their children. And yet, the Home Office has managed to make more than half a million from the scheme.
Take action
Have you been living on the Azure card? Tell us your experiences.
