Asylum benefits end as EU grows

Tens of thousands of migrants have passed through Dover

Hundreds of asylum seeker families in Kent have been told their benefits will end when the eastern European countries they fled join the EU on May 1.

Kent politicians have called on central government to give the families time to organise papers and apply for passports and national insurance numbers.

Asylum group Migrant Helpline says some of the 300 families have already been given notice by landlords.

The Dover support group says asylum seekers face an impossible deadline.

Support 'prevented'

Chief executive Annie Ledger said: "Current legislation prevents district and county councils from picking up their support.

She said asylum seekers would be left with no support "unless by some miracle on 1 May they are able to get a national insurance number, get passports back from the Home Office and register to work all on one day".

"If rent payments stop on 1 May, the landlord will have to go through the normal eviction process.

"Families are coming to us in a very distressed state."

Kent County Council's director of social services Peter Gilroy said his own proposal for a transition period had been rejected, but the Local Government Association had also asked the government if the affected group could be ring-fenced and offered benefits.

Dover's Labour MP Gwyn Prosser said he would like to see the an extension "for a month or so".

He said special precautions had been taken because of concerns about 1 May becoming "a large opportunity for people to come in from the accession countries and purely claim benefit".

One Roma man who fled the Czech Republic over five years ago told BBC Radio Kent his family would have to sleep on people's floors or outside if benefits are stopped.

"My home is now here. What can I do now? I have lost everything. My children speak only English, write English and read English. They can't read and write Czech."

"Without paperwork, you can do nothing," he said.