My blog last week about the politicisation of Asylum seekers and refugees prompted quite a bit of reaction and I promised a number of readers that I’d do some research on the actual financial assistance they receive.

There are so many misleading rumours and “facts” around at the moment regarding asylum seekers and the benefits they get from the government.

One hoax email in particular is doing the rounds telling people that “illegal immigrants/refugees” receive thousands more in welfare payments than Australian pensioners.

Emails like this are completely fabricated and made up purely to conjure up negative sentiment towards asylum seekers.

Photo: IndyMedia.ord

If you’ve received an email which looks like this you should delete it, tell whoever sent it to you that they’re an idiot, and learn the facts…

• First of all, refugees are not illegal immigrants. It has never been illegal in Australia to arrive on shore without a visa seeking asylum. In fact it’s one of the rights within the UN’s declarations on refugees which Australia helped to write.

• When an asylum seeker arrives in Australia, they do not get any Centrelink benefits. While their status is being processed, and if they meet certain criteria, they can be eligible for financial support from the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme, administered through the Red Cross. This amount is 89% of the basic Centrelink allowance. This means approximately $405.84 per fortnight – over $260 less than a pensioner.

• Once an asylum seeker is recognised as a genuine refugee, after a long and highly scrutinized process, they are given permanent residency and are then entitled to the same Centrelink, schooling and health benefits as anyone else. No more, no less.

• The normal Centrelink welfare payment is $456 per fortnight, for a refugee with permanent residency and an Australian-born person. A pensioner in Australia receives $671.90. Over $200 more each fortnight. Even with family/parenting benefits, a refugee’s benefits would still be less than a pensioner’s income.

• For an asylum seeker to qualify for any payment under the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme, they must have lodged an application for a visa 6 months before, not be in detention, and not get any other payment or benefit.

• To get a permanent residence as a refugee, the person has to prove they are a genuine refugee fleeing persecution, go through character, security and medical tests, and sign an Australian Values Statement.

• ‘Boat people’ are asylum seekers. Refugees are asylum seekers who have been approved and given a visa. None of them are ‘illegal immigrants’.

The above facts come from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the Refugee Council of Australia, and from the Red Cross. A lot more reliable than a random email from a friend of a friend.

Before you make a judgment on asylum seeker policy, know the facts.

For more info, have a read of these:

- Myths about refugees and asylum seekers: the answers

- Response to lies and hoax emails – Refugee Council of Australi a

- Media Blunders on asylum seeker claims

- Assistance for Asylum seekers in Australia - DIAC

- Related articles: Avoid the POlitical Spin - Some Facts About Asylum Seekers

Comments  

 

-4 #215 Rodney 2012-05-10 20:26

just when is enough going to be enough if our goverment keeps letting them in we the true Australian are going to be pushed out not now but all our grand children and there children and then sure enough we will be looking for anouther country to live in thanks to our goverment not good not good

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-6 #214 pamela bedford 2012-05-09 18:41

I think Kochie hasnt done his research. For a start as far as a lawyer explained, refugees are illegal as they have stepped on other shores. Most of them from Sri Lanka or Afghanistan go to Malaysia for a holiday, find out all the rorts, then head off to Indonesia then on to Australia. I dont know the number but under our constitutional act this is illegal and because of this you are not called "a refugee:. Also Kochie you mentioned the money paid by Centrelink, I know for a fact this is wrong. They also get allowances for almost everything, free clothes, schooling, books, free furniture and even houseing.
Do our pensioners get a nice new fridge or new furniture? I had these people living next to my 84 yr old mother and goodnes can I write a book. Everything from stealing to tribal music and 15 people living in one small 3 x 1.

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-4 #213 Give the real facts 2012-05-09 18:05

Why are Australians being held hostage to documents signed in the 1950s. WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE 1950s. It is time to pull out of these so called agreements with the UN.

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-3 #212 Give the real facts 2012-05-09 17:53

Kochie, why don't you tell the people the real story and that is these people get 90% of the newstart allowance as soon as they arrive. They then go on to other Centrelink payments. On top of that they get free housing (a lot of time at the expense of Australians), counseling, legal expenses, medical, furniture, help in obtaining jobs etc which costs Aust more. Years later most are still on welfare. Aside from the economic expense the social cost is becoming even higher. Kochie - do you even live anywhere near the suburbs where these people accumulate. I guess not.

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-3 #211 nigel 2012-05-09 13:08

koshie,why do you not mention that these illegal entry refugees or what ever you want to call them get priority of housing over australian families with children,the boat people are living in comfort while children and babies are living in tents and cars with their parents who have been on the housing lists for up to 10 yrs why not put these refugees?? in those tents and other forms of living quarters and put our needy persons in those accommodations as they were either born here or came in the legal way a lot of australians would never see in their life time the amount of money that they pay these boat owners from indonesia for their trip ,koshie if you want to be some sort of crusader just tell the other side of the story as well

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+7 #210 GARY 2012-05-06 13:00

What is also sad is that programs where most Australians get information on what is going on such as 'A Current Affair' and 'Today Tonight' would never feature this story from Kochie on their program because Kochie is explaining the facts. Or they would distort it somehow and say "Kochies gone tropo and wants the government to give more money to illegal immigrants"

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+3 #209 Alison Pommel 2012-04-29 23:50

While the financial facts of this article are true, Kochie does not mention the low employment rate and high crime rate of people who came here as refugees. The top 7 countries of birth of prisoners per capita are Samoa, Tonga, Sudan, Vietnam, Romania, Indonesia and Lebanon. After their first 3 years in Australia (plenty of time to learn English), a third of working-age refugees are still unemployed. As a country we need to tighted up our security/psychological screening of humanitarian entrants, and as a society perhaps we could do more to help them integrate. Having said that, when I get pss-pssed at in the street by Afghan teenagers and read stories of Sudanese adults in Australia circumcising their toddler daughters, I do feel a lot of undesirables are slipping through the 'screening'.

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+6 #208 laurie 2012-04-29 16:38

arrrgh! This is not just a debate about pensions and who gets what. I can guarantee that refugees fleeing a country to seek asylum (most of whom remain in mandatory detention for up to 2 years before getting tossed back to their hellish war-zones)have it a lot worse than your grannies living off of welfare. if australia is so good, grow the eff up and learn to be humane, and give these people their rights. We all all mortal, all born to this shitty earth, all deserve an equal chance. Oh, so you'll be slightly inconvenienced will you? why? because you'll have to stop being racist and bigoted and learn to live like an actual human being, not some racist, fearful drone created by what the ol' fat cats want you to think. IGNORANCE PEOPLE, IGNORANCE

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+9 #207 Chris 2012-04-27 17:36

Nice work Kochie, about time people in the media started setting the record straight.

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+9 #206 Chris 2012-04-27 17:34

Nice work Kochie!
It's about time the media started to take responsibility for the misinformation that is regularly spouted.
The amount of refugees arriving on our shores pales in comparison to the amount of tourist visa overstayers who work illegally and don't pay tax. Why don't we hear about them?
And why people are whining about the cost of housing asylum seekers, and not about the billions of dollars spent on invading the countries these people are coming from is bemusing.

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-10 #205 jt 2012-04-19 20:41

it seems all the people supporting these immigrants seem to lack any patriotism for australia at all. they seem to have more of a "whole word is one country" mentality. this is a good way to exhist if you want australia to be taken over by other nations.
f.y.i. this is australia, which is more important than any country other than because its "ours".
i find people who say we are being inhumane if we think about our own country over another country when it comes to our monies and resources is pretty much being ignorant or doesnt care about australia at all.

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+4 #204 kathleen 2012-04-19 10:52

I have to say I agree with Lee, I dont see feminism has done much for all women and I think it has damaged homes and families. I am on a pension because I have been adversely affected by the very systems that were meant to help, mental health, police, DoCS, family courts, it is unfortunate that the mainstream media is as closed as the doors of these agencies. Humanitarian needs are not really being addressed in Australia, the dole is going to be dumped, welfare has been abused and people come here to get it, those like me considered to be parasites by many in our communities, will die on Australian streets, in fact many already do, homelessness exists, mental health is abused by those in professions who are supposed to address it. Why dont DoCS take children off refugees, why do they take children away from mothers who love them, I would never risk my childs life, I loved them all but my life does not matter to the Australian government. Humanitarian aid is not given to our own people.

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-4 #203 Andrea Stuart 2012-04-16 11:22

What about the money it costs to house,feed and give medical care, pychologists, condoms and smokes??? I'd like to see that money go elsewhere too!
So we aren't just giving them cash... oh.... hang on we are doing that too!

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+3 #202 DD 2012-04-15 21:08

Everyone stating "but I/gran/pop/etc don't get that amount of pension" - something else is affecting the rate. Income from another source, interest from a bank account, overseas pension, etc. Actually go investigate. The information is all in the letters, or just call the call centre (and yes, it's very simple to see what is affecting a pension for a Centrelink worker - the PIAS screen gives allll the information required). Don't have that amount in the bank, or not getting that alt source of income anymore? Update your details!

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+1 #201 DD 2012-04-15 21:05

Quoting camo:

my nans on the pension and she gets about $320 a fortnight. you are in corect stop lying to the australian public those pirates get more than our pensioners....stop talking rubbish.(dictionary meaning):PIRATE :
pi·rate   /ˈpaɪrət/ Show Spelled [pahy-ruht] Show IPA noun, verb, -rat·ed,
A PERSON WHO COMITS ILLEGAL ACTS AT SEA OR ON THE SHORES OF THE SEA. that is what these people are its a fact look it up for yourself

A reduction in her pension will be because she has income from another source.

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