Distant voices: Asylum support remains in chaos, says CAB report 01/10/2002

Distant voices: Asylum support remains in chaos, says CAB report 01/10/2002

1) Distant voices: CAB clients' experience of continuing problems with the National Asylum Support Service.

1.1 Full text Word .doc file

2) Earlier report- Process Error Report

2.2 Full text Word .doc file

PRESS RELEASE

Asylum support remains in chaos, says CAB report 01/10/2002

Asylum seekers are sometimes being left destitute for weeks and months as a result of the Government’s continuing failure to deal with serious and systemic problems with the National Asylum Support Service, according to a report published today by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB).

Distant Voices, based on 400 case reports from CABx in England and Wales in the six months up to the end of August, paints a disturbing picture of a complex, inaccessible system in the grip of chaos, often unable to meet the most basic needs of those it was set up to support, and almost impossible to get a response from when things go wrong.

The report sets out a catalogue of evidence demonstrating that deep-rooted problems with the standard of service provided by NASS remain unresolved, despite assurances from Ministers that problems with past performance have been rectified by reforms put in place over the last 12 months. NASS is responsible for administering the system whereby asylum seekers are forcibly dispersed to the regions, providing accommodation and subsistence support in the form of vouchers exchangeable for cash.

Cases cited in the report include the following:

A Congolese woman with five children who sought assistance from a CAB in Derbyshire had not received any subsistence support since being dispersed to the area by NASS four weeks previously. When an adviser telephoned NASS, an official conceded that NASS was still sending the client’s vouchers to her former address, and agreed to send out emergency vouchers immediately. However, two weeks later the client returned to the bureau, as she had still not received any vouchers from NASS, and she and her family had now been without subsistence support for six weeks.

A CAB in Staffordshire phoned NASS on behalf of an Eritrean woman who had been without subsistence support for ten days. NASS took details and undertook to resolve the problem, but two weeks later the client returned to the bureau having heard nothing from NASS. Unable to get through on the phone, an adviser wrote to NASS. Ten days later the client returned to the bureau once more – this time she had received a batch of voucher receipts, but not the necessary accompanying letter she needed in order to get her cash vouchers, so Post Office staff had again refused to issue these. The client had now been without the means to buy food and other essential items for six weeks, and was being fed by other NASS-supported asylum seekers living in the same NASS-provided accommodation as her. Again unable to get through to NASS by phone, an adviser wrote another letter to NASS. Three weeks later, the adviser finally managed to speak to a caseworker at NASS, who indicated that emergency vouchers would be sent to the client.

The report warns that plans for accommodation centres for asylum seekers - the Government’s proposed replacement for the NASS support system – are no more than embryonic and will remain so for the foreseeable future. NASS will therefore continue to be the principal provider of welfare support to asylum seekers for many years to come, making it essential to address its current failings.

NACAB urges the Government to accept that NASS will only be able to provide a satisfactory service if it is fully decentralised, so as to offer a better quality, responsive and accessible service at a local level, with local counter or ‘drop-in’ services using staff with appropriate language skills. It also calls for a joint ‘value-for-money’ audit of NASS and the NASS support system by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission.

NACAB Chief Executive David Harker said:

“Ten months ago we published a report on the poor performance of NASS, strongly urging the Government to decentralise the service and provide local contact points for asylum seekers to sort out problems. Ministers rejected our proposal and continue to maintain that the problems we described then have been dealt with by a series of internal reforms. The evidence we set out in this new report proves this is overwhelmingly not the case.

“Our report should act as a wake-up call to the Government. CAB advisers are experienced in dealing with large and complex bureaucracies that are often remote and inaccessible to users, but without exception they report that their attempts to deal with the National Asylum Support Service throw up more challenges than anything they have previously encountered. By failing to establish a properly resourced asylum support system that can speedily resolve problems through face-to-face contact, the Government is effectively condemning asylum seekers, including whole families with small children and babies, to surviving for weeks and months without the means to buy food and other essential items before basic administrative errors are put right. Not only is this a shabby and inhumane way to treat some of the most vulnerable people in our society, it also puts other local services under undue pressure, and threatens to create tensions in communities.”

Notes for editors:

Distant voices: CAB clients’ experience of continuing problems with the National Asylum Support Service is available from the Social Policy Department, NACAB, Myddelton House, 115-123 Pentonville Road, London N1 9LZ. (Price £6). The report will shortly be available on from this site.
In the year 2001/2002 Citizens Advice Bureaux dealt with almost 55,000 immigration and asylum problems, an increase of almost 12 per cent on the previous year.

Citizens Advice Bureaux deliver free, confidential, independent and impartial advice from over 2,000 outlets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Bureaux belong to the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) which sets standards for advice, training, equal opportunities and accessibility. NACAB also co-ordinates national social policy, publicity and parliamentary work. NACAB and each CAB are registered charities and rely on the work of over 21,000 volunteers and almost 5,000 paid staff. Bureaux in Northern Ireland are supported by the Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NIACAB). Bureaux in Scotland belong to a separate organisation, Citizens Advice Scotland.
Moira Haynes: 020 7833 7107 (NACAB Press Office) or 07790 019116 (mobile)

Source: http://www.nacab.org.uk/