Asylum Seekers Using Taxpayer-Funded Payment Cards To Gamble
Credit: Alamy/Robert Stainforth
3 min read
The Home Office has launched an investigation after PoliticsHome revealed that asylum seekers across the UK have been using taxpayer-funded payment cards for gambling.
When asylum seekers enter the UK, they are given an ‘ASPEN’ card by the Home Office. These are used for spending on essential items while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim.
Those living in ‘initial accommodation’ – usually fully catered hotels – are given £9.95 a week on their ASPEN card. When asylum seekers are moved to self-catered accommodation, they are given £49.18 a week.
These cards are intended for food, toiletries, clothes and other necessities. However, some asylum seekers have successfully used ASPEN cards to gamble, PoliticsHome has learned.
According to data received in response to a Freedom of Information request, 6,537 asylum seekers have used ASPEN cards in gambling settings in the past year across the UK, with attempts being made on a weekly basis.
At the highest incidence, 227 asylum seekers attempted to use or successfully used the cards to gamble in a week last November. 40 asylum seekers attempted to use or successfully used the cards to gamble in a week last July at the lowest.
ASPEN cards operate on a chip and pin basis only, meaning the large majority of asylum seekers used them in physical sites such as casinos, slot machine arcades and national lottery retailers. While attempts to gamble online using the cards had been made, they were blocked each time.
A Home Office spokesperson told PoliticsHome: "The Home Office has begun an investigation into the use of Aspen cards.
"The Home Office has a legal obligation to support asylum seekers, including any dependents, who would otherwise be destitute."
Prepaid Financial Services, which is contracted by the Home Office to manage and issue ASPEN cards, did not respond to a request for comment.
Paul Bristow, the Tory Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said it is "not unusual" in his region to see men who arrived to the country via small boats in betting shops.
“Peterborough has seen a huge increase in the number of gambling establishments and gaming centres, and a huge increase in men who've arrived across the Channel on small boats," he told PoliticsHome.
“It's not unusual to see the very same men in some of the establishments on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. There's something going on here. Questions need to be asked. It would be absolutely wrong if they were using money given to them by British taxpayers to waste on gambling or in adult gaming centres.”
There are currently around 80,000 ASPEN card users in the UK. The Home Office was able to collate the data by searching through individual transactions made on the cards. In some cases, cash withdrawals were made in or near gambling sites, located using the terminal’s ID number.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told PoliticsHome: “It is shocking that over 6,000 illegal immigrants have attempted to use hard-working British taxpayers’ money to gamble. They have illegally entered this country without needing to – France is safe, and no one needs to flee from there.
"The British taxpayer has put them up in hotels, and now they slap us in the face by using the money they are given to fund gambling. These illegal immigrants clearly don’t need the money they are given if they are squandering it at casinos and arcades."
