No more cash

Asylum payment cards can be used everywhere from 2025

The payment card can be used to buy food, for example.

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

Austria's Ministry of the Interior is satisfied with the test run for the benefits-in-kind card for asylum seekers (see video above). From next year, the card is to be used throughout the country. The aim is to provide basic services without cash as far as possible, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP).

However, the provinces can decide autonomously whether to adopt the model or not. The trial has been running since July, including in facilities run by the Red Cross, Volkshilfe and Diakonie in Upper Austria. The results are "positive", said Karner and the head of the Federal Care Agency, Andreas Achrainer, on Tuesday. There will still need to be "tightening up" in individual areas.

Card blocked in betting shops
There are currently around 130 cards in circulation. All services that can be obtained from basic services are booked onto them. For example, purchases in as many stores as possible and the purchase of public transport tickets are possible. It is completely blocked for certain sectors such as betting shops. Transfers abroad are excluded. 

Asylum seekers in a supermarket

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

Asylum seekers can only withdraw pocket money of 40 euros per month from ATMs. For Karner, the benefits-in-kind card offers several advantages. For example, it would prevent cash payments to smugglers and transfers of large sums of money to home countries. "It fuels the smugglers' business if too much money is paid out."

It fuels the business of smugglers if too much money is paid out.

Innenminister Gerhard Karner

For migrants aged 14 and over
Other advantages according to Karner: simpler administration and more security for those providing accommodation, as money no longer needs to be stashed in the accommodation. Achrainer pointed out the high costs of transporting money. The card is issued personally to migrants aged 14 and over. This could prevent all the money from ending up with a family patriarch, said Karner.

In October, the Federal Procurement Agency plans to put the new model out to tender, and in 2025 the winning provider will provide the benefits-in-kind card for the whole of Austria. Different models are currently being used in the federal states. Tyrol has had its own card for some time, and Lower Austria has also developed its own concept. In many states, however, cash benefits are simply paid in cash at the accommodation.