Commonwealth money for services supporting asylum seekers has been slashed since 2016, driving more people on bridging visas to charity, a new report says.
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Funding for Status Resolution Support Services reached $300 million at its height in 2015/16, but by 2021/22 that figure dropped to $16.6 million, Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reported.
The income support paid to the program recipients is a portion (a maximum of 89 per cent) of the allowance paid to Australian residents and citizens.
But a Home Affairs Department spokesman told AAP there had been "no budget cuts".
"The program is demand driven. The number of recipients has declined since 2017 in line with the resolution of the legacy Unauthorised Maritime Arrival caseload,"
the spokesman said on Thursday.
The legacy caseload refers to a group of about 30,000 asylum seekers, most of whom arrived in Australia by boat between 2012 and 2014.
The centre is urging the federal government to allocate $300 million in the May budget and open work rights for more categories of visa holders.
Its 22-page budget submission recommends asylum seekers on bridging visas be allowed to work and study while they wait for their refugee status to be processed.
It estimates more than 80 per cent of about 7000 asylum seekers who have accessed its service have no source of steady income.
Jana Favero, the centre's advocacy director, said asylum seekers were "forced into poverty and destitution through policy".
"The Albanese government has the chance to not only reform the system but ensure people can have enough to cover basic living costs."
Funding for asylum seeker support services in the 2022/23 budget estimates was about $40 million.
About 1500 people receive Status Resolution Support Services, which has dropped from 25,000 in 2015.
That figure represents about two per cent of the total asylum-seeking population in Australia, estimated to be about 70,000 people.
The social support services were created under the Abbott government in 2014 with the Department of Home Affairs assessing access.
The report notes changes to funding during the past decade have "put thousands of people in poverty and facing homelessness at a time when the cost of living is rising".
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles's office declined to comment on the report's claims.
People seeking asylum on average wait about six to eight years for their application to be reviewed and processed.
The centre said 57 per cent were without work rights and 66 per cent were without study rights, prompting a 45 per cent increase in asylum seekers needing financial assistance to cover everything from rent and transport to electricity bills and medical care.
One of those people is Sol, a Somali asylum seeker who was detained in Nauru for five years and has been living in Australia on a bridging visa for the past five years.
"I have applied to over 150 jobs, I am very skilled, I was doing a degree and I have management skills. I get far in job interviews but then they see my visa will expire," the asylum seeker in his mid-20s said.
"We sought asylum we asked for help and safety and after 10 years of zero progress, the only thing that has increased is our age and trauma.
"We are not asking for much, just to live like all other people and give back to the community."
Australian Associated Press
