In UK, asylum seeker housing budget slashed

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Source: Inside Housing

The UK Border Agency is to slash the amount of money it spends on providing housing for asylum seekers by 17 per cent next year.

The UKBA was forced to reveal its plans following a freedom of information request submitted by Inside Housing. The agency’s provisional spending on accommodation in 2010/11 is £164 million. Its budget for 2011/12 is £135.5 million.

The FOI request also revealed the UKBA is making the savings by slashing the number of contracts it holds with accommodation providers from 28 to 22 - a drop of 21 per cent. And some providers have had their contracts extended for 12 months, but face being axed next year.

The UKBA will run a full tendering process for 2012/13 contracts during 2011 through its COMPASS project, to replace current contracts and further reduce costs.

Several of the axed contracts were held by local authorities, while many of its contracts with private providers were left in place. A deal with a consortium of seven councils in the north - NECARS - has been dropped leaving private company Jomast the sole provider in the region.

Pete Widlinsci, information and communications manager at charity North of England Refugee Service, said:

‘We have no problems with the private sector providing accommodation but there needs to be a mix of providers.’ This was because it provided greater competition and kept councils in direct touch with issues affecting asylum seekers, he added.

Dave Stamp, project manager at Birmingham-based advice service Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team, said he believed the UKBA had based its selection of providers mainly on cost.

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UK: Legal aid delivers justice; kind lawyers won't

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Source: Guardian


By Afua Hirsch


Earlier this year I spent some time at a London law centre. Like many services that offer free legal advice, many of its clients are young adults at risk of homelessness, worklessness, poor mental and sexual health, and becoming involved in antisocial behaviour, drug use and crime.

It's long been said that legal aid, in the 60 years since its birth after the second world war, is the unrecognised fourth pillar of the welfare state. Nowhere is this clearer than at South West London Law Centre, a dilapidated, damp building in Tooting staffed by lawyers with an almost irrational dedication to working on the frontline. I met one of their clients, a 20-year-old called Danni who had lost his job as an apprentice joiner in the recession. He was wrongly told that he could not claim housing benefit to help pay his rent, and found himself in court as the council tried to repossess his council flat.

Danni, who like most people had no knowledge of legal proceedings or civil law, faced the daunting prospect of representing himself in court and being made homeless. He was saved by a lawyer from the centre called Niki Goss, an amazing and vastly experienced man who has spent his career taking on this kind of case, for which he earns less than the average primary school teacher. Goss, funded by a legal aid scheme that enabled him to be on duty in court that day, persuaded the judge to oversee a compromise with the council so that Danni could remain in his accommodation.

The Law Centres Federation estimates that the average cost to the taxpayer of evicting people like Danni is £34,000. The service provided by Goss that day and subsequent court hearings costs less than £1,000. Providing vulnerable people with legal representation saves money down the line.

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UK: new housing advice website for migrants

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Source: 24dash.com

By Ross Macmillan

A newly revised website that gives clear guidance on the housing rights of new migrants was launched 6 October.

The housing rights website www.housing-rights.info has proved immensely popular since first launched in 2008, with on average 3,000 'hits' each month. It has now been completely rewritten and re-launched to provide an even better guide to housing and housing benefits rights for refugees, migrants and other new arrivals to England.

The new site is being launched by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and is compiled by respected experts Sue Lukes and Sam Lister, edited by John Perry. The guidance on housing benefit is now more comprehensive, and the pages for advisers have been comprehensively extended and now include many examples of case law.

The site now provides extremely clear and comprehensive guidance on entitlements for different types of immigration status, with details on the differences that apply to different kinds of European migrant and other complex issues that arise.

Don Flynn, Director of Migrants' Rights Network, said: "The website is a terrific up-to-date resource not only for immigration and housing experts but for all migrants who want to know more about their rights and entitlements."

Vanessa Wilson, Head of Housing Solutions at Medway Council, said: "We have found the website extremely useful - it is a tool that I believe all homeless staff and relevant providers and agencies could use in their day to day work."