Claiming asylum: your right while you are waiting

What can I live on while I am waiting?

If you have no money you can usually claim support while your case is considered. This scheme is run by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS). Children who are applying on their own are dealt with differently – they get support from local councils.

The Home Office may refuse you support if it thinks you have not applied for asylum as soon as you should have. If you are refused support for this reason, you will not be able to appeal against the decision, but you should get advice as soon as possible.

Applying for support

If you are allowed to claim support, you will have to fill in a long form in English. You should be able to get help with the form wherever you are staying in the UK. You can get this help from organisations that run ‘one-stop services’. You can get their details from the Home Office when you get the form, or from any local refugee support agency.

You can apply for accommodation (housing), financial support (money), or both. You will be given support only if you are ‘destitute’ (have no money). If you have any money or NASS believes you can get some, you will have to live on that before it will give you support.

If you are refused support, or if your support is taken away before your asylum application has been finally decided, you can appeal to the independent asylum support adjudicators. You will be given an appeal form if you are refused support. You can get free legal help to prepare your appeal but not to represent you at the hearing. There may be a legal representative who can help you free of charge when you go to the hearing.

What you can get

Support will be paid to you in the form of vouchers, which you can exchange for cash at a post office. But if you or someone in your household has medical or other special needs which cost more than you can afford, you should also claim for these costs.

Where you will be housed

If you are granted support and need somewhere to live, you will first get emergency housing, usually in a hostel in London or Kent (south of London). You will then be sent (‘dispersed’) to another part of the country, unless you have a good reason to stay in London - for example if you need special care because you have been tortured. Having close relatives in London won’t generally be a good enough reason.

If you are sent somewhere else, you won’t have a choice of where you go. Each part of the country has a ‘one-stop service’ that should be able to give you advice and help, and you should be put in touch with it.

If you don’t want to be dispersed, you will probably only be able to get support, and not accommodation. You’ll have to find somewhere to stay yourself (with friends, for example).

When support stops

Your support can end in the following ways:

• If you are recognised as a refugee (granted asylum), given humanitarian protection or given discretionary leave you will have 28 days to move out of your emergency accommodation and find other support. The one-stop service or other local advice agency will help you with that.
• If your asylum application is refused, you will be given time to lodge an appeal. You will carry on getting support until your appeal finishes, plus 21 days after that.
• If you leave or damage the accommodation you have been given, or if NASS believes you have other money, you will no longer get support.

‘Hard cases’

Sometimes it may not be possible for you to return home, even after your appeal has been refused. This may happen if there are no flights to the area so there is no way of returning you, or if there is a war there and the Home Office doesn't think you should return for the time being. If this happens you should be allowed to stay for a time, but because your case has ended you will not be able to claim support. You can apply for some ‘discretionary’ help from NASS instead. You may be told you have to do some community work to receive this support.

If your household includes children, you can get support from your local council. However, this may be stopped if the Home Office thinks you are not helping with arrangements to send you back to your country, for example by not making a proper application for a passport from your embassy. Otherwise, you may get help only if you have special medical needs - if you do, your local council should help with these costs.

What rights do I have while I’m waiting?

Most asylum seekers who apply as soon as they arrive aren’t detained, but are given temporary admission instead. If you are given temporary admission you must:

• report back to the immigration authorities at a particular date and time that you will be told about;
• live at a particular address; and
• not work.

You may also have to report regularly to an immigration office to sign in, or accept ‘electronic monitoring’ or ‘tagging’. This will usually mean having to wear a special piece of equipment that allows the Home Office to check you are staying at a specified address.

If you break the conditions for temporary admission, you could be detained. And if you don’t report back when you are told to, you will be treated as an ‘illegal entrant’. If you move, you must tell the immigration authorities straight away, even if you are being dispersed.

The Home Office will make an appointment for an interview, and will send you a notice at the address on your temporary admission form. If you don’t attend, the Home Office will refuse your application for ‘non-compliance’. You could lose your right of appeal if notices don’t reach you and you miss the time limit because of this.

If you can’t get temporary admission

If you can’t get temporary admission, you will be detained, but you can apply for bail after seven days. This means you can leave the detention centre as long as you can arrange to pay a sum of money to the court if you break the conditions of release. It will usually help if you know one or two people who live in the UK and who are willing to guarantee that you will keep to any conditions of the bail. These people (known as ‘sureties’) will be asked to promise to pay the money if you don’t report back when you are told to. There is a separate booklet of advice for people who are detained, ‘Challenging Legal Detention: A Best Practice Guide’, which you should be able to get from:

• the visitors’ group, which is a group of volunteers who visit people who are detained, and can help put you in touch with services outside; or
• the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees.

There may also be other conditions of bail, similar to those for temporary admission. You may have to go regularly to a police station or immigration office to sign in. If you break these conditions, you may be breaking the law, and your sureties can lose the money they have promised.

The cost of applying for bail will be covered by publicly funded legal help, if you qualify for it. You should ask your legal representative to apply for you.

You will not be allowed to work while you are still an asylum seeker. However, if the Home Office delays making a decision on your case for more than 12 months, then you can apply for permission to work.

Other rights

As an asylum seeker, you can get free medical care, and you can register with a local doctor to receive free health care. In most areas, English-language classes are available free of charge, and you can take some other further education courses too.

Very little money is available, apart from your asylum support, but some travel costs can be paid. These will include fares to an interview with the immigration authorities and to an asylum appeal hearing. You should ask for help with your fares if you have to report to the police or at an immigration office. But to get the fares paid you need to tell NASS about your appointment five or six days before it takes place. You will also have your fares paid if you are sent to another part of the UK. The one-stop service can help you with these.

If you are getting publicly funded legal help, you may get your travel costs to go to an interview with your legal representative.

Where can I get help with my claim?

If you do not have enough money to pay for legal representation, you should be able to get specialist advice free of charge. This is available through solicitors and voluntary organisations who have a contract with the Legal Services Commission. Two of the larger organisations that can provide advice are the Refugee Legal Centre and the Immigration Advisory Service.

Also, free services are provided by other organisations and some local agencies, particularly law centres. The one-stop service or a Citizens Advice Bureau can help you find these, though you may not be able to find a legal adviser to help you immediately.

If you have been detained and you can’t get to any of these organisations, you should try to contact one by phone or speak to a member of the visitors’ group. This is a group of volunteers who visit people who are detained, and can put you in touch with services outside.

Your adviser must tell you in writing:

• what service you can expect;
• who to complain to if you have concerns about the advice service or adviser;
• whether you will have to pay a charge, and if so how it is worked out; and
• how to contact the advice service when you need to.

It is against the law for organisations to offer advice or help with asylum cases unless they are solicitors or on the register of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). Anyone who offers advice that isn’t free must always tell you that free advice is also available.

Using interpreters

The immigration authorities will provide you with an interpreter for any interview they carry out. Your legal representatives should also find one for you when you see them. If you do not understand an interpreter, you must say so immediately. It is very difficult to correct mistakes later. Remember that interpreters are meant to help you to communicate, and should just translate what is said, not give advice or answer questions for you. You should avoid using friends or family members for all but the simplest help.

Further help

Community Legal Service Direct

Provides free information direct to the public on a range of common legal problems.

Call 0845 345 4 345

If you qualify for legal aid, you can also get free advice from a specialist legal adviser about benefits and tax credits, debt, education, employment and housing. You can also find a local legal adviser or solicitor.

Click www.clsdirect.org.uk to find out more.

Amnesty International

phone: in England: 020 7033 1500

in Wales: 029 2037 5610

www.amnesty.org.uk

Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA)

For information on where to get help, ask for or look up the Directory of Members.

phone: 020 7251 8383

www.ilpa.org.uk

Immigration Advisory Service

www.iasuk.org

phone: 020 7967 1200 (head office)

See the website for local contact details throughout England and Wales

Law Society

The Law Society can give you details of solicitors who can offer legal representation in asylum cases.

phone: 0870 606 6575

www.solicitors-online.com

National Asylum Support Service

Frank Corrigan, 27 Old Gloucester Street,

Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3XX

www.asylumsupport.info

Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC)

phone: 0845 000 0046

www.oisc.org.uk

Refugee Legal Centre

phone: 020 7780 3200

www.refugee-legal-centre.org.uk

Another leaflet, ‘Legal Advice for People who are Detained by the Immigration Service’ has been produced by the Law Society, Law Society of Scotland, OISC, CLS and ILPA, and should be available through any of these organisations.

This leaflet was written in association with the Immigration Law Practitioners Association and Mick Chatwin, a barrister and solicitor specialising in immigration law.