Home Office concedes that more former asylum seekers may be entitled to section 4 support

In September 2014 the SLF grant funded the Asylum Support Appeals Projects (ASAP) to intervene in the case of a destitute former asylum seeker, with outstanding representations, who had been refused support by the Home Office. He was refused support on the grounds that his outstanding representations, which were based on having a private and family life in the UK (under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights), did not entitle him to support from the Home Office.

ASAP’s intervention sought to clarify whether those making these claims, including former unaccompanied minors and families with young children in the UK, are entitled to basic accommodation and subsistence (under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999) whilst their claims are outstanding.

The Home Office had been consistently refusing these applications on the grounds that only those with fresh asylum claims based on persecution and risk (Article 3 of EHCR) qualified for support. In its intervention, ASAP made representations on the need to provide support to this group to ensure they are able to exercise their rights to a private and family life under Article 8 of ECHR.

Following lengthy submissions from ASAP, the Home Office conceded that support may, in any particular case, need to be provided to avoid a breach of a person’s Article 8 rights.

For further background information on the challenge and on article 8 and section 4 support, please see ASAP’s briefing note here