HC Deb 09 February 1999 vol 325 cc135-7W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were(a) declarees at the point of entry and (b) non-declarees who were subsequently identified as seeking assistance in each quarter since 1 January 1997. [68584]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

This information is not available in the form requested.

Asylum seekers may generally receive benefit in the form of income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit, if they are port asylum applicants, or support from local authority social services departments, if they are in-country asylum applicants or asylum appellants.

The information requested on those who seek support from local authority social services departments is not available. But on those who seek income support, statistics available on the number of urgent case payments that are claimed, awarded and refused are shown in the table. Only a small proportion of urgent case recipients are not asylum seekers.

The number of total urgent case payment claims broadly reflects the total number of asylum seekers who have sought income support; the numbers awarded indicate how many were on-arrival asylum applicants, the

Asylum applications1received in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, May 1997 to December 1998, by month, for selected nationalities
Principal applicants
Applications Poland Romania Bosnia and Herzegovina Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Croatia Slovenia FYROM (Macedonia) Albania Hungary
May 1997 55 40 10 95 5 15 35
June 1997 30 55 15 110 5 50
July 1997 40 65 10 150 5 40
August 1997 40 65 10 200 10 * * 40
September 1997 35 25 5 220 10 5 * 55
October 1997 35 85 10 240 5 * 5 30
November 1997 40 70 10 220 20 5 40
December 1997 90 75 10 295 50 * 10 50
January 1998 90 40 5 270 5 * 30
February 1998 95 55 5 270 5 * * 30

numbers refused are indicative of those who were in-country applicants (although this may also include a number of on-arrival applicants who do not satisfy the other rules of entitlement). But the latter do not include those in-country applicants who applied for support direct to local authority social services departments.

Number of urgent case payment claims, awards and refusals January 1997 to December 1998
Number of urgent case payment claims Number of urgent case payment awards Number of urgent case payments refused
1997
January 2,051 1,347 685
February 1,879 1,103 594
March 1,682 1,257 623
April 2,475 1,348 731
May 2,431 1,458 645
June 2,121 1,300 675
July 2,621 1,305 1,166
August 2,376 1,192 841
September 2,642 1,399 1,048
October 2,480 1,458 1,060
November 2,448 1,062 776
December 2,379 1,112 711
1998
January 3,077 1,248 933
February 2,544 1,288 953
March 2,900 1,504 1,142
April 2,723 1,221 1,146
May 2,401 1,110 1,050
June 3,064 1,449 1,134
July 3,348 1,437 1,806
August 3,372 1,719 1,796
September 3,418 2,215 1,829
October 3,698 2,168 2,314
November 3,270 1,922 1,883
December 2,899 1,959 1,447

Note:

Please note data are subject to amendment

Source:

Benefits Agency Management Information Statistics

Mr. Steen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum were received from nationals of(a) Poland, (b) Romania, (c) Bosnia and Herzegovina, (d) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, (e) Croatia, (f) Slovenia, (g) FYROM, (h) Albania and (i) Hungary in each month since 1 May 1997. [69990]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The information requested is given in the table.

Asylum applications1 received in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, May 1997 to December 1998, by month, for selected nationalities
Principal applicants
Applications Poland Romania Bosnia and Herzegovina Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Croatia Slovenia FYROM (Macedonia) Albania Hungary
March 1998 95 45 15 280 10 5 55
April 1998 140 70 10 385 10 * 30
May 1998 85 60 15 315 5 5 * 40
June 1998 100 50 15 680 15 * * 55
July 1998 80 115 10 845 15 5 25 35
August 1998 140 95 15 905 15 * 55
September 1998 160 70 20 870 25 5 65
October 1998 200 115 15 1,160 30 * 70
November 1998 140 125 20 735 80 5 55
December 1998 265 170 10 675 115 5 40
Total 1,945 1,500 245 8,920 450 35 65 900
1 Figures rounded to nearest 5, with *=1 or 2

Source:

Immigration Research Statistics Service, RDS