Between April 2015 and march 2016:
- RST provided 877 destitution grants in 2015-16, supporting 1,199 people.
- The average grant was £66.89, totalling over £58,000 for the year.
- On average, RST gave out £4,888 each month in 2015-16.
Graph to show destitution grants given out each month
[click on graph to enlarge].
Key facts:
- 75% of lead applicants were male
- 78% of applicants were single
- 69% of applicants were aged 16-35
- 44% of applicants were homeless at the time of their application
- 13% of applicants had applied to RST for support before
Asylum status:
- 72 grants to people who were yet to claim asylum
- 168 grants to people waiting for a decision on their asylum application
- 179 to people who were in the process of submitting a new application
- 282 grants to refugees and people with leave to remain.
Graph to show asylum status of destitution grant recipients 2015-16
[click on graph to enlarge].
Reasons for claim:
- 393 grants were for ‘essential living expenses’. This included 66 ‘breathing space’ grants for people at the end of the asylum process.
- 238 grants were for new refugees awaiting mainstream benefits.
- 168 grants were for travel, over half of which (90) were for travel to Liverpool to submit fresh evidence.
Applications including children:
- 13% of applications (110) included children. 54 of these families were refugees or had limited leave to remain.
- RST supported 223 children in total.
- 39 families (35% of applications with children) had been granted refugee status but were awaiting mainstream benefits.
- 69 children (from 38 applications) were homeless at the time of the application.
Nationality
The largest nationality groups were Eritrean (16%), Sudanese (15%), Iranian (12%), Syrian (8%), and Iraqi (7%).
