With vouchers

Trickery with new asylum payment card possible after all

No cash for refugees.

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

Cash for vouchers: the 40-euro limit on the new card for asylum seekers can be circumvented with a trick.

When the payment card for asylum seekers was introduced, Upper Austrian state politicians looked closely at Germany, where the model was invented. However, it is precisely there that the first serious problems are now arising, which are also expected here. The purpose of issuing the cards was to make it more difficult for refugees to access cash. For example, cardholders can only withdraw 40 euros in cash per month, the rest of the amount they are entitled to can only be spent via Visa card at terminals.

"We want to prevent cash from being transferred abroad," said Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (ÖVP), the provincial councillor at the time. The cheating in detail: In Germany, word is already getting around that vouchers are being bought with the asylum card and exchanged for cash by benevolent people.In Regensburg, refugees are even being supported by aid organizations in the process.

Theoretically, this is also possible in Upper Austria, according to the office of Provincial Councillor Christian Dörfel (ÖVP). However, in the current pilot project, aid organizations such as the Red Cross, Volkshilfe and Caritas are closely involved as accommodation providers, making it difficult to imagine any abuse.

The next step will be taken in mid-November with the expansion to the central area of Linz and Linz-Land.

Landesrat Dr. Christian Dörfel, ÖVP

The implementation itself: Following the start of phase 1 in the Steyr-Land district in the summer, the new system is now being rolled out step by step in other regions. "The next step will be taken in mid-November with the expansion to the central area of Linz and Linz-Land," confirms Social Welfare Councillor Dörfel, who has just taken over from Hattmannsdorfer.

1000 asylum seekers in the new system
Next week, 718 asylum seekers will be informed that they will receive a card instead of cash. Caritas, which was initially skeptical, is now also joining the new system and will no longer pay out cash in five districts. As of November 15, there will be 1000 refugees in Upper Austria who will no longer receive cash.