§ Viscount Exmouthasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the daily cost, from the 14 October to date, for the maintenance and housing of asylum seekers arriving from Eastern Europe.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
Between 17 and 27 October, 224 Czechs and 59 Slovaks arrived at the Port of Dover. Of these, 110 have been refused entry and removed. The Dover office of the Benefits Agency has received approximately 100 claims from the Czech and Slovak arrivals. A very broad estimate based on estimated average weekly benefit costs for asylum seekers is that the weekly benefit costs of these cases is in the region of £15,000 per week.
Note:
Cost arrived at by using the estimated average weekly benefit cost of asylum applicants: £202.90 for those with dependent children, and £73.20 for those with no dependent children. This is an estimate of average weekly Income Support, Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax Benefit. These figures are based on the Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiries for May and November 1996 and the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System 1 per cent. sample for May 1996, uprated to 1997–98 prices and benefit levels. Take-up is assumed to be 100 per cent. for those with children, and 85 per cent. for those without (based on the Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiry for November 1996, and Home Office figures on the number of outstanding applications at the same date).