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Lord Best: The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, made many of the comments that I planned to make in supporting the new clause.
The point about 28 days' notice sounds very tedious and administrative. When does it start? When does it finish? However, this is a very important point. About 18 months ago when this matter was debated in this House, the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, said:
- "If the decision has been made that someone qualifies to remain in the country, no one should be mealy-mouthed about it: that person deserves to be properly treated, respectfully welcomed, and integrated as efficiently as possible into society so that he can contribute to society as he thinks appropriate".—[Official Report, 24/10/02; col. 1454.]
- "in those initial days and weeks the foundations can be laid for a successful life in the future".—[Official Report, 15/7/02; col. 973.]
When the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 was before your Lordships, I proposed an amendment to extend the period of grace for those accepted as refugees and given leave to remain. I suggested an increase from 28 days' notice to 60 days. I pointed out the improbability of all the necessary procedures being sorted out and the households being able to secure alternative accommodation elsewhere, plus organising housing benefit or a job paying sufficient to afford the rent, all within four weeks. I noted that because of bureaucratic delays of different kinds, the 28-days notice was being seriously eroded. That evidence was very sympathetically received by the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, then the Home Office Minister in charge. I subsequently met with senior civil servants and the Minister to discuss progress in resolving those problems.
Rather more than a year later I am delighted to report back to your Lordships that in at least one highly significant respect the position appears likely to be much improved. This relates to one of the main problems of the 28-day notice period; namely, the lengthy delays experienced by the households concerned in receiving a national insurance number—a NINO. When this Bill was in Committee in the other place the Minister there explained that because the main hold-up in accessing mainstream benefit before NASS support runs out arises from the issuing of the national insurance number by the Department for Work and Pensions, a pilot scheme has been run to give successful asylum applicants their national insurance number with the letter notifying them that they may stay in this country. Instead of the NINO coming out days, weeks or even months later—and on it depends access to work and benefits—the pilot for
all applicants who were interviewed in Liverpool brought the issuing of the national insurance number up to the front of the process.I was delighted to learn that that pilot has proved a considerable success and the plan is now to roll out the process to cover every case. That is an important step forward and I congratulate the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Inland Revenue on reaching agreement on this joined-up approach. However, this is not the end of the story. There are other aspects of the problem which mean that new refugee households will almost never have 28 days in which to get everything else sorted out.
The review of the operations of NASS early last year highlighted this issue. I shall not quote from that report. However, I rounded up current information from colleagues handling these matters on a day-to-day basis in the regions concerned, both directly and with the help of Shelter and citizens advice. In the words of one settlement officer in the north-west,
- "the 28 day grace period exists only on paper. Yet it is a procedural issue which could be addressed for little if any extra expense. If only the grace period was correctly dealt with, it could serve to ensure the smooth and managed transition of new refugees from NASS support to the mainstream housing and employment markets which, after all, is its purpose".
I have a cluster of other pieces of evidence from those who are at the coalface dealing with these issues on a day-to-day basis and they repeat the same problems over and over again. A local authority settlement officer in Newcastle, for example, explains a typical case where Mrs A receives her positive decision on 1 January with a letter sent by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. However, the accommodation provider receives notification on 18 January. Fifteen days of the prescribed period have been eaten up, and it cannot be assumed that members of the household, to whom there is simply a short reference in the IND's grant of status letter in English, will have taken any action to arrange their move to new premises. As an officer in Manchester explained to me:
- "Although many local authorities have refugee resettlement workers available to assist new refugees move on from NASS support, they often have little more than a week in which to accomplish everything that needs to be done".
The good news about national insurance numbers—assuming that the proposed roll-out from the pilot is now proceeding—does not address the need for co-ordination between the IND and NASS. It also does not address the issues of letters being lost in the post and of going to the solicitors who used to act for the family. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking away and the members of the household do not know that their time is running out and that they will soon have to leave their accommodation.
The result is that last year in Yorkshire alone, for example, more than 1,000 families had to be accepted as homeless after their over-hasty eviction from NASS accommodation. Those who have no priority for council housing—mostly single people who are evicted and have nowhere to go—will often leave for the floors of friends in
London and the south-east, nullifying the whole purpose of the dispersal of such people to areas with less housing pressure.The amendment would mean that 28 days would be 28 days, whatever happened to the bureaucratic systems in the mean time. I hope that, at this late hour, the Committee will have the tolerance to consider it, and I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister.
10.30 p.m.
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: I thank the noble Lord, Lord Best, for his congratulations. I hope that he will celebrate with me the news that I am to add to the pleasure that he has undoubtedly given to the Committee by saying that, as of today, 5 April, the process described by the noble Lord as having been piloted in Liverpool will run for all asylum claims, including those considered in Croydon. The noble Lord was right to say that that was a major obstacle. With the good work of the Department for Work and Pensions, together with my right honourable friends with responsibility for the Inland Revenue and at the Home Office, we have been able, if I may express it colloquially, to crack that one to some satisfaction. Notwithstanding the late hour, perhaps I may say a little more about where we are now with regard to the system. We do not consider the amendment to be necessary and, if I may, I shall explain why. As many noble Lords will know, at the end of the asylum process, asylum seekers receive two separate letters: one telling them whether their claim or appeal has succeeded or failed; and, for successful refugees and failed asylum seekers without minor dependants, one from NASS saying that their support will be terminated on a certain date.
As noble Lords have already said, the termination of support is subject to a grace period of 28 days for successful refugees and 21 days for single failed asylum seekers. Failed asylum seeker families remain on NASS support until they leave the country, although their support can be terminated if they fail to comply with removal directions, as we have just discussed. The grace period is calculated from the date of the asylum decision or disposal of the appeal.
There is sometimes a delay between the sending out of the asylum decision or appeal notification and the NASS termination letter. Therefore, I understand that this new clause proposes that the 28-day or 21-day grace period be calculated from the date of the NASS termination letter rather than the asylum letter.
Advocates of this new clause, including citizens advice bureaux, argue that that would make it easier for successful refugees to transfer to the mainstream benefits system. I know that they also argue, as has been argued in Committee today, that it would make for a smoother process for single failed asylum seekers.
We recognise that successful refugees face considerable challenges when leaving NASS support and entering the mainstream benefits system. However, we do not consider it necessary to change the legislation so that the grace period commences on receipt of notice of termination of NASS support.
There is nothing that NASS does in ending support that makes a successful asylum seeker (including those given other types of leave to remain) eligible for
mainstream benefits. That eligibility is conferred only through the asylum determination letter. The fact is that a successful asylum seeker is able to apply for benefits from the point at which the status letter is received.Instead of amending the legislation, we believe we should concentrate our efforts on improving existing processes and pursuing work to make more effective use of the existing statutory period.
We have therefore undertaken considerable work to improve our processes and reduce the delay between receipt of a final decision on an asylum claim and receipt of the letter terminating NASS support. It was for that reason that the main areas where improvements are being made are links with the Department for Work and Pensions and those between NASS and other parts of IND. So, the noble Lord, Lord Best, was right to emphasise the importance of the work we have done at the Department for Work and Pensions because the main hold-up in assessing mainstream benefits before NASS support runs out is the issue of the national insurance number by DWP. Within the past year we have managed to change that system so that you immediately get a national insurance number the moment you get the decision; from that moment people will therefore be able to make appropriate application for the widest range of benefits.
The noble Lords, Lord Best and Lord Avebury, were right to say that links between NASS and the other areas of IND are essential because before NASS can give notice of termination of support, it needs to be aware that a decision has been made on the asylum claim. Computer links between the Asylum Caseworking Directorate and NASS are being improved to enable that process. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, that not only does the Home Office graphically understand and use e-mails as has been demonstrated in the past couple of weeks; we also understand and use computer technology. NASS now aims to give at least 21 days' notice before support ends to 90 per cent or more of asylum seekers. We shall shortly introduce a system enhancement so that we shall be able to monitor the actual notice period for all cases. As for failed asylum seekers, when we terminate support for them we put them in touch with the International Organisation for Migration and the Immigration Service, who are able to arrange voluntary return at no financial cost to the individual.
Single failed asylum seekers who cannot return home may be eligible for support under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Policy on Section 4 is being clarified and tightened up. A new policy bulletin was published on 25 March this year. We have also decided that when terminating support to failed asylum seekers we shall in future draw the existence of Section 4 support to their attention. That procedure will be put in place shortly.
I hope that noble Lords will agree that it was much more important for us to concentrate on efforts to ensure that the practical system worked well and that the inter-relationship between DWP, Inland Revenue and ourselves through IND is as smooth as we can make it so that the provisions work as opposed to the contrary. In this area of immigration and asylum, as in many others, we believe that the Government have made successful moves in the right direction to overcome what have been hitherto almost insurmountable odds and we are winning.
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