And Newcastle City Council believes it has found a way of continuing to support them.
These families face eviction from their housing, which is funded by the National Asylum Support Service under the Home Office's dispersal scheme, as they are from countries among the 10 that will join the European Union tomorrow.
They will no longer be considered to have claims for asylum because, as EU members, these countries will be considered safe by default.
They will be treated as normal EU citizens. Therefore, under new rules introduced by the prime minister on Tuesday, they will be ineligible for help with housing unless they are working and have registered with the Home Office's accession state workers registration scheme within 30 days of starting their jobs.
However, none of them has been working because asylum seekers are not allowed to and, in any case, they could not be registered with the Home Office because the necessary forms will only be available from tomorrow.
During emergency high-level talks on Wednesday Newcastle, which houses 134 such asylum seekers, asked lawyers whether it could continue to support them on the basis that they have not been able to register as workers.
A source at Newcastle council said: "We will support these people for an interim period on the basis that that support would be clawed back from the Home Office.
"If the registration scheme is not yet working, it is unfair on those people that are willing and able to work but have not been able to register. There must be a way that we can provide for that."
Other providers have indicated this week that they would be interested in taking the same route if Newcastle was successful.
If the eleventh-hour manoeuvre fails, housing providers could have to take the children of any affected families into care, under the Children's Bill introduced earlier this year (12 March, page 26).
Source
Housing Today
No comments yet