Asylum: Finance
(asked on 27th October 2014) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why an Azure Card user does not qualify for emergency food vouchers when a technical problem occurs with the card.
The Azure card is issued to destitute failed asylum seekers accommodated under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 because they are temporarily unable to leave the United Kingdom.
The card is updated each week with credit to the value of £35.39 for each person in the household to enable them to buy enough food and other essential items.
The table below lists the retailers that accept the Azure card and the total amounts spent at each of them since it was introduced. The table includes Peacocks, which no longer participates in the card scheme.
Retailer Name | Value (£) |
Tesco | 20,660,480.59 |
Asda | 11,373,929.59 |
Sainsbury's | 5,935,535.81 |
Morrisons | 2,528,626.86 |
Boots | 2,478,849.23 |
Peacock Group | 333,709.46 |
Co-operative Group Food | 250,074.03 |
Food City Halal Market | 202,813.59 |
Mothercare | 39,947.70 |
Iceland Foods | 38,311.88 |
Midlands Co-operative | 22,172.05 |
Salvation Army | 3,544.40 |
British Red Cross | 3,380.32 |
Masala Bazaar | 330.55 |
Holland and Barrett | 326.68 |
Information and training materials are provided to the retailers about the terms and conditions attached to the card, which are reviewed and updated regularly.
We are aware of some isolated instances where people have been denied purchases, but in the great majority of cases this is because they had insufficient funds on the card to buy the particular items.
If there is a defect in the card that means it cannot be used, for example because it has been damaged, arrangements are made to issue vouchers.