Financial trouble looms for asylum seekers with residence permits as COA quits tasks

Asylum seekers who have been granted a temporary residence permit are in danger of finding themselves in financial trouble as no more allowances are being applied for them. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) stopped doing this on January 1, the NRC reported.

The COA feels it is the municipalities' job to help refugees in this. Municipalities feel taken by surprise and unhappy by the decision taken by the asylum seekers reception.

“It is not our job,” said a COA spokesperson. “We plugged that hole, but actually, municipalities should be doing this.” The COA also referred to the Integration Act, which states that the municipalities are responsible for the guidance of immigrants for their first six months in the country.

Many asylum seekers who have been granted a temporary residence permit are dependent on allowances. But many of them do not know where to go and how to ask for the allowances. Since 2015, the COA has been helping them with this. The COA applied for rent allowances, and previously also for healthcare allowances for the asylum seekers that have been granted a permit.

Due to a change in the Allowances Service, it has become more complicated to apply for rent allowances in advance. "That is why we asked the relevant ministries at the end of 2023 to ensure that this task is assigned elsewhere," said the spokesperson. "The ministries indicated at the time that they would take this up."

However, it seems to be the case that this never happened. The municipalities said that they were blindsided by the COA’s decision. “On New Year's Eve, we received an automatic email from the COA stating that they will no longer be applying for benefits as of tomorrow. While we were not aware of this yet,” said an official who is responsible for the housing of asylum seekers who have a residence permit in a large municipality.

He added that it is impossible to take these tasks over at such short notice. “This takes months of preparations. The municipalities already have very little capacity. Now the COA is simply throwing it over the fence, even though nothing has been arranged yet.”

This means that the asylum seekers who have been given a temporary residence permit from January 1 may be left in limbo. They could be given no allowances and be put in financial problems.

The COA denies that they were late in notifying the municipalities about this. The Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) has confirmed that they were told near the end of 2023 that the COA did not want to do these tasks anymore.

However, the VNG has stated that it was stated in the letter from the COA that agreements would follow on how the tasks would be completed and more research would be done into the matter. “The ministry was supposed to keep us informed. But that never happened. We were never spoken to about it again after that,” a spokesperson for the VNG said.