Asylum seekers: Payment cards for refugees are to be introduced nationwide

Enlarge image

Information sign at the state reception center for asylum seekers in Karlsruhe

Photo: Uli Deck/dpa

According to Hesse's Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU), a payment card for the payment of state benefits for asylum seekers is to be introduced nationwide. He announced this as chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference on Wednesday in Wiesbaden.

According to Rhein, Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are going their own way when it comes to the awarding process for the introduction of a payment card. The 14 other federal states have agreed on a common procedure and the award is expected to take place in the summer.

There had been a long dispute over the introduction of payment cards. The question is how asylum seekers should receive benefits. The prime ministers of the states and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) agreed in November 2023 that they should receive at least part of their benefits as credit on a payment card in the future. The use of such payment cards is intended to deprive those seeking protection of the opportunity to transfer money from government support in Germany to relatives and friends in their country of origin.

»In the future, those entitled to benefits should receive part of the benefits as credit on a card instead of a cash payment. Each country decides for itself the amount of the cash amount as well as other additional functions,” Rhein continued. The payment card can basically be used in all industries, but not abroad. Card-to-card transfers and other transfers at home and abroad are also not planned. "With a payment card, cash payments to asylum seekers are largely unnecessary," said the co-chair of the Prime Minister's Conference, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD).

Rhein sees this as an important step to reduce incentives for illegal migration to Germany. "With the introduction of the payment card, we are reducing the administrative burden on municipalities, preventing the possibility of transferring money from state support to the countries of origin and thereby combating inhumane smuggling crime," he explained.

mrc/dpa