Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have conducted any assessment of relative value for money to the Exchequer of cash-based, voucher-based, or Azure Card support systems for refused asylum seekers.

Existing legislation explicitly prevents the Home Office from introducing cash for section 4 support.

The Azure Card replaced the previous section 4 voucher system in 2010. The voucher system was open to abuse, fraud and presented poor value for money to the people who relied on it and the UK taxpayer. The Refugee Council report "More Token Gestures" also contended that vouchers stigmatised their users and were inflexible.

The administration of the Azure Card scheme is largely self-financing, non-resource intensive, and provides a less stigmatising and more fraud resistant method of support than the voucher system.