Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason his Department decided to move the provision of financial support to asylum seekers from post offices to Aspen cards.

The functionality of the Aspen card was thoroughly tested prior to its rollout in May 2017 and there were a number of factors which influenced the decision to move to a payment card from Post Offices.

Primarily, the sub-contractual arrangements were coming to an end, and the Asylum Registration Card (ARC) used for identification and payment purposes was being upgraded. Other factors included improved convenience and accessibility for service users, and a reduction in processing costs associated with reduced cash handling.