First balance sheet

Digital asylum money already paid out 600 times

Instead of using cash, refugees have to pay for their basic needs such as food using a Visa card, to which a fixed amount is charged each month.

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

The initial scepticism among aid organizations should have evaporated: since July, refugees around Steyr have no longer been given cash. But how is the payment card project going?

Since the beginning of the summer, refugees in the Steyr area have no longer been given cash as part of a pilot project, but the amount due has been credited to a Visa card - as reported by the "Krone" newspaper.

Governor Thomas Stelzer and Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (both ÖVP), who is still a member of the provincial integration council, are now taking stock. A total of three digital payments have been made to date, specifically in mid-July, at the end of July and in mid-August. "This means that digital payments have now been made more than 600 times in total," Hattmannsdorfer summarizes.

Volkshilfe and the Red Cross are involved in the project 
Neither his office nor he have received any reports of serious complications to date. The organizations (Volkshilfe and the Red Cross are involved in the project) have also reported that everything is running smoothly.

The project will therefore continue in the fall, when other asylum centers will also switch from cash payments to the new card system. Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer says: "The benefits in kind card is the right way to prevent the misuse of benefits and simplify administration at the same time."