Upper Austria offers itself

No cash for asylum seekers: pilot region in the works

The ÖVP is considering a payment card instead of cash for asylum seekers (symbolic image).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

In future, asylum seekers should no longer receive basic welfare benefits in cash, but via a so-called benefits-in-kind card, which can be used to pay at the supermarket, for example - at least if the ÖVP has its way. Upper Austria is an ideal pilot region for this.

The aim of the changeover to the payment card: "We want to prevent benefits from flowing abroad or being misused," says Upper Austrian Integration Councillor Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (ÖVP).

The Ministry of the Interior plans to present a concrete draft in June, and such a payment card could be tested in Upper Austria before then. Hattmannsdorfer offered the Land ob der Enns as a pilot region. The new system is to be launched on a trial basis in one or two similar districts in the coming weeks, his office told the "Krone" newspaper. Details are still open, but the experience gained from this test will then be incorporated into the nationwide project.

We want to prevent benefits from basic services flowing abroad or being misused. A card is therefore to be introduced.

Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer, Integrationslandesrat (ÖVP)

Approval and criticism
Basic welfare support includes various benefits, such as a food allowance of up to seven euros per day for asylum seekers who provide for themselves. FPÖ state leader Manfred Haimbuchner also called for a switch from cash to a payment card at the beginning of the year.

Criticism has come from other parties in various federal states. They fear higher costs due to more administrative work with such a card or doubt that it is necessary at all.