Campaigners are rallying support in a bid to overturn the axing of a scheme that provided free bus travel for people in Scotland seeking asylum.
A motion proposed by the Scottish Greens at their opposition debate on Wednesday, 9 October calls for the Scottish Government to restore their commitment to the scheme.
This debate will go to a vote and Maryhill Integration Network is urging everyone to email their local MSPs to attend the debate and support the proposed motion. Find your MSPs here. You can use the template email below and watch the debate here.
‘Dear INSERT NAME
I hope this email finds you well.
I am emailing regarding the debate at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 9th October for Free Bus Travel for people seeking asylum in Scotland.
I am asking you as your constituent/organisation in your constituency to attend the debate and vote in favour of extending free bus travel to people seeking asylum in Scotland.
In October 2023, the Scottish Government announced that it would allocate £2m of the 2023/24 budget to roll out free bus travel to people seeking refugee protection. This commitment came after more than 2 years of campaigning from those with lived experience of seeking asylum here in Scotland – we were delighted.
But in August 2024, the Scottish Government announced suddenly that they had scrapped the scheme.
This came as a huge disappointment for many organisations, especially for those who have been campaigning for this change, sharing their experiences and highlighting the impact it would have made.
People seeking asylum do not have the right to work. They are forced to live on barely £50 a week to meet all their essential needs whilst they wait for months – sometimes years – for a decision on their application for asylum.
People seeking refugee protection are forced into poverty because of a hostile asylum system. But here in Scotland we can do more to support people seeking asylum to rebuild their lives here. And extending free bus travel should be part of that.
On Wednesday, the Scottish Greens will bring a motion to the Scottish Parliament chamber calling on the Scottish Government to re-consider their decision and to restore the commitment to free bus travel to people seeking asylum.
I am asking you to vote in favour of this motion.
I hope you can participate in this debate as such a small change will have a significant positive impact for people seeking asylum in Scotland.
The annual homelessness statistics released today by the Scottish Government make for sober reading. And reveal the breach of trust between government and the housing and homelessness sector in Scotland.
The figures reveal a 4% rise in homelessness applications – topping 40,000 households asking their council for help during 2023-24. An 8% rise in live cases nationwide to 31,870 and a 9% rise in people stuck in temporary accommodation – a record high – including more than 10,000 kids waiting for a permanent home. 506 more people experienced the sharpest edge of homelessness, being forced to sleep rough with no roof over their heads at all.
These are not just numbers – they are individuals, families and children being let down in a crisis and diverted to temporary flats, hotels and B&Bs, instead of homes, for months on end.
It is a deeply distressing situation for people affected, as well as for the services and sectors that support people, and the organisations committed to advocating for people and for change.
While the post-pandemic environment and cost-of-living crisis has played a hand, Scotland’s progressive housing policy has been undermined by its own hand and the fiscal policy of both UK and Scottish Governments.
The Scottish Government’s December budget made a hugely damaging £200m cut to the affordable housing supply programme, over and above the reach of the UK Government’s capital budget freeze. It is notable that the quarterly housing statistics also published today showed affordable home approvals were 44% lower than the peak figure in the year to June 2020.
Each and every decision jeopardising housing targets and exposing the progress made towards ending homelessness and rough sleeping in Scotland to new risk. And each and every decision betraying the trust of the sector, ignoring warnings, expert insights and evidence.
Scotland has a housing emergency – it’s time to act like it.
But how? Only with housing and fiscal policy aligned, and a supply of affordable housing in line with demand, will we see the scale of progress we need on the key pillars of Scotland’s progressive homelessness policy – prevention, reducing unsuitable, expensive and temporary accommodation, ensuring childhoods are spent in settled not temporary homes, scaling up Housing First for those at the hardest edge – and ensuring people seeking sanctuary or to settle in Scotland have a safe place to stay.
The statistics show thousands of people are being denied their legal right to housing because the system is operating way beyond capacity. Our progressive housing and homelessness rights are designed to avoid this, but urgently need backed up with adequate investment in homelessness, support and building social homes.
And we need to think big – on matters of land and wealth tax and on the society we want to be.
In the near-term, local authorities need proper funding to discharge their statutory duty properly in the face of intense external pressures. And they need proper investment support to implement rapid rehousing plans. This approach is proven to work – a system that prioritises earlier prevention and ensures stays in temporary accommodation are as brief as possible.
Without these interventions – and without thinking big – these statistics will become entrenched as a predictable yearly roll call of how tens of thousands of people experiencing homelessness are failed year after year in Scotland.
Blue Light Card, the nation’s leading discount provider for the emergency services, NHS, social care sector and armed forces, announced today that it is welcoming the homelessness workforce into its community.
Today’s announcement is the result of a new partnership between Blue Light Card and Homewards, a five-year programme created by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales which aims to demonstrate that it’s possible to end homelessness as well as to change perceptions around the issue.
They have worked with the 4 membership bodies across the UK – Homeless Network Scotland, Cymorth Cymru (Wales), Homeless Connect (Northern Ireland) and Homeless Link (England) to support the homelessness workforce deliver in local communities.
Frontline colleagues are often the first point of contact for people facing the worst crisis of their lives. But working in those roles is increasingly more pressurised because of the housing emergency and cost-of-living crisis.
New research by St Martin-in-the-Fields charity shows that over half (52%) of those working in the sector sometimes struggle to pay their bills or housing costs (44%). Nearly one in two (47%) have spent their own money on work related costs and 51% said that they always or often feel at risk of burnout and a further 29% said they sometimes feel this way.
Access to Blue Light Card will provide practical ways for the homelessness workforce to save money and improve their own wellbeing, from discounts on everyday essentials like groceries and utilities, to coffees and meals out with friends and family after a long day at work.
Alidad Moghaddam, Chief Executive Officer at Blue Light Card said “This workforce may not be as easily identifiable as uniformed blue light workers like nurses, doctors, police, or firefighters, but we see them. ‘Blue Light’ symbolises service, sacrifice, and societal impact – values which are shared by the homelessness workforce who often put the needs of others before their own.
“Preventing and ending homelessness can only be achieved with the continued dedication of these very special people, and the impact they have is why they are so deserving of an offer that’s dedicated to them. If we can play even a small part to support their health and wellbeing and show how much we value and appreciate them, we will do that.”
Pim Gregory, Executive Director of Homelessness, The Royal Foundationcommented: ‘Homelessness is a complex, multifaceted issue and as such the homelessness workforce includes a huge variety of roles. They work tirelessly to support some of society’s most vulnerable – from those rough sleeping, people ‘sofa surfing’ or sleeping in their cars, to families and children stuck in unsuitable temporary accommodation. It is essential we recognise and support the vital role the homelessness workforce plays in our society and we’re so grateful to the Blue Light Card for their support on this and commitment to Homewards going forward as an Activator.”
Gaining membership to the Blue Light Card for access to market-leading discounts and rewards is quick and easy. Full time and part time employees of organisations that work directly on homelessness across the UK are eligible. Register online atwww.bluelightcard.co.uk. A card costs £4.99 and is valid for two years.
Don’t miss out!
In Scotland, members of Homeless Network Scotland will enjoy a simple sign-up process for accessing the scheme, with those organisations on a pre-approved list that you’ll find during the sign-up process. If you’re not yet a member of Homeless Network Scotland, it’s simple and quick to join to receive this benefit and many others – join here.
But rest assured, frontline staff working in homelessness can still access the Blue Light Card without being subscribed to the national membership bodies with some verification and ID checks during the sign-up process – please see below.
Choose Social Care – Homelessness at the ‘your service’ drop down box.
Select ‘Your employer’ (the organisation you are employed by*).
Enter your personal details.
You’ll receive a verification email at the provided address. Follow the instructions to complete your registration. You will need to click the link in the verification email to activate your account
Log in to your online account and go to ‘My card’
Pay a £4.99 fee to gain 2 years access to Blue Light Card
* If you are not on the list of approved organisations, you will be asked to verify your employment by either providing proof of employment (see the list of accepted IDs in the FAQs link below) or a work email address.
For more details about eligibility please visit the Blue Light Card FAQs page.
No Wrong Door Scotland partnership launched to create a blueprint for joined-up services that address multiple disadvantage
A major new test of change has been launched to explore how to break down barriers to support faced by tens of thousands of people in Scotland who face multiple disadvantages – with their experience made worse by unequal access to help.
No Wrong Door Scotland will draw on a wide range of professional, academic and lived experience to explore how to better serve people who are dealing simultaneously with issues such as homelessness, poverty, addiction, offending and mental ill health.
Experts in the action learning partnership will address the mismatch of services that focus on a single issue and the overlapping challenges many people face – often as a result of adverse life experiences going back to childhood.
This fragmented model forces people to repeat their story and often relive traumatic events when they go round the different ‘doors’ in the system in search of help.
A National Learning Set of experts who will oversee and contribute to the programme met for the first time in Edinburgh on Monday 16 September.
The two-year programme will wrap a learning cycle around existing services at local level to understand how to deliver No Wrong Door in different geographical and service contexts.
Evidence gathered from the services run by Aberdeen Foyer, Cyrenians, Penumbra and Turning Point Scotland will feed into the National Learning Set, who will develop a National Framework for creating cross-sector and integrated service delivery.
They will share evidence gathered from the test-of-change with the Scottish Government’s Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness, to influence a new model of service design. Homeless Network Scotland is the learning partner in No Wrong Door Scotland.
No Wrong Door Scotland is made up of third sector innovators, lived experience experts, policy makers and leading public figures. They include former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, now associate director at the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow; Karyn McCluskey, who helped create the groundbreaking Violence Reduction Unit and is now chief executive of Community Justice Scotland; and leading international scholar on homelessness Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick.
The partnership builds on findings in the Hard Edges Scotland research co-authored by Prof Fitzpatrick, director of Heriot-Watt University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research (I-SPHERE).
That report set out how people who have suffered experiences such as trauma, violence and poverty are much more likely to face multiple and overlapping disadvantage.
But they are also less likely to be able to get the support they need because of services operating in ‘silos’ – fuelling a vicious cycle of disadvantage and inequality.
The Hard Edges research revealed that 5,700 adults experience three ‘core’ forms of severe and multiple disadvantage (homelessness, offending and substance dependency), while 28,800 experience two out of these three.
The four test-of-change services are based in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Fife
Aberdeen Foyer’sservice focuses on upstream work in schools to ensure young people don’t face barriers to support, while Cyrenians’ Hospital In-reach Service supports patients who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
Penumbra’s Hope Pointis a 24-hour wellbeing centre that supports people in emotional distress. Turning Point Scotland’s Fife Support Service marries a Housing First model with an innovative Whole System Approach to prevent and respond to homelessness.
Maggie Brunjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland said: “It is well established that the way services are paid for and provided does not work for people who, on top of traumatic life experiences, are also dealing with issues including physical and mental ill health, substance use, homelessness, poverty and offending.
“The current model doesn’t work for anyone. It makes navigating the system difficult for people, it widens disadvantage and inequality, makes key workers’ jobs harder and it mounts pressure on public spend.
“The Scottish Government is already committed to using a No Wrong Door approach across a range of social policy, but we need a shared definition of what this looks like and a national framework to inspire local and national action.
“By using evidence of what is working locally, and what needs to change, we can firmly challenge the status quo and demonstrate that a better way is possible.”
Thousands of people in Scotland, including long-standing members of communities, are being forced into extreme poverty and homelessness by hostile UK immigration policy, a new report has revealed.
The research includes a survey of those accessing crisis support from Fair Way Scotland, a partnership of third sector organisations helping to prevent homelessness and destitution among those with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) or who have other Restricted Eligibility for state support.
The study by Heriot-Watt University and funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that going hungry and surviving without clothing and toiletry basics was the norm, while rough sleeping was common.
Key findings:
97% of those surveyed were destitute, with an average weekly income of just £40. A third reported no income at all in the last month. Hunger and skipping meals were the norm, with two-thirds reporting going without meals, clothes and toiletries in the last month.
93% were experiencing homelessness, with 53% sleeping rough in the last year. Over half (55%) were in temporary accommodation provided by charities, local authorities or the Home Office. Over the last year, 58% left accommodation with nowhere else to go.
People in affected groups showed significantly poorer physical and mental health compared to the general population. Experiences of trauma, violence, stigma, and discrimination were widespread.
66% of those surveyed were not permitted to work, severely limiting their ability to improve their circumstances. The 15% that were permitted to and seeking work typically struggled to get a job because of health issues, homelessness, and language barriers. Experiences of illegal and exploitative work were common through lack of choice.
Experience of forced work was reported by 14% of those surveyed over the last year – rising to 16% for EEA nationals.
Powerful testimony in the report sets out the mental and physical harms experienced by individuals who have been prevented from working despite desperately wanting to contribute.
Hostile environment policies and enormously complex immigration law push costs onto public services, charitable organisations and communities. Use of expensive emergency and urgent care was found to be especially high for this group.
Most of those interviewed have been living in Scotland for years or even decades. They include those with NRPF who arrived seeking asylum and have, for example, exhausted their right to appeal as well as some who arrived on spousal or student visas.
It also covers European Economic Area nationals who can’t access support like mainstream housing and welfare benefits following Brexit, despite living and working in the UK for many years.
The report calls on all levels of government to make urgent changes to end this “destitution by design,” including the UK Government simplifying routes to settlement and the Scottish Government using all devolved levers at its disposal to stop this humanitarian crisis from worsening.
The study also highlights the ongoing positive impact of Fair Way Scotland, which provides a lifeline to those it supports. People benefit from, and deeply value, the holistic and flexible casework support that aims to progress their immigration case, helps them to engage with lawyers and the Home Office, and attends to their immediate and wider needs.
Alongside casework support, some accommodation and modest financial support is also provided in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, but availability falls far short of demand given the limited funding available.
Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, from the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University, said:
“The levels of need, deprivation, disadvantage, and trauma experienced by those with No Recourse to Public Funds or Restricted Eligibility amounts to a humanitarian crisis among a group often hidden from public view. Many of those affected have been in the UK for years, if not decades, contributing to our communities but left without access to basic support.
“This report shows this to be a highly diverse group of people, including those who came to Scotland to seek sanctuary, European nationals who still face challenges as the UK transitions out of Europe and those who arrived to study or with their partner.
“Two thirds of those we spoke to are not allowed to work, blocking their ability to support themselves out of these dire circumstances and stifling their ability to contribute to the society they desperately want to make their home. These counterproductive hostile environment policies affect thousands of people across Scotland, crushing their potential and creating destitution by design. The level of need is shocking but the issue is entirely preventable with concerted action.
“It is time to stop passing the buck. Radical and urgent reforms are needed that prioritise people’s ability to access the essentials and live a dignified life. The new UK Government must commit to ending the unnecessary hardship that is being caused by current immigration policy and urgently change course.
“We also seek commitment from Westminster to support the Scottish Government and other devolved nations in their efforts to ensure that everyone has access to basic essentials whatever an individual’s immigration status.”
Deborah Hay, Senior Policy Advisor (Scotland) at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:
“Scaling up Fair Way Scotland is now critical given the growing demand for help, but mitigation programmes like this shouldn’t be necessary.
“The integrated offer of casework support, legal advice, accommodation, and cash support provided by Fair Way Scotland partners is transformative, even lifesaving, for those who are able to benefit from it. However, demand far outstrips availability.
“Scaling up this response to meet the level of need requires increased buy-in and investment from a range of social partners. The Scottish Government, independent funders, local authorities and housing associations must work together to reduce the harm caused by current immigration policy, by using every tool at their disposal. Public services and charities, stepping in to address appalling state neglect, are also bearing the preventable and costly brunt of those policies, and must be fully supported.
The report makes a series of urgent recommendations to stop the humanitarian crisis from worsening, including:
Calls for all levels of government to end “destitution by design” within immigration policies and implement measures to ensure non-UK nationals can avoid homelessness and destitution.
The UK Government must simplify routes to settlement, process all claims fairly and quickly and require, empower and adequately resource local, regional and devolved Governments to provide an immediate basic safety net for all.
The Scottish Government should exercise all devolved levers at its disposal, and commit resources to effectively implement its vision to end homelessness and destitution in Scotland.
This includes co-investing with independent funders, housing associations, and other partners to rapidly scale up Fair Way Scotland, ensuring the partnership can provide more people with safe housing in community-based properties, with linked cash payments and access to legal advice and other support.
Lived experience
The report includes evidence from people directly affected by the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy, including Sofija, a European national who has lived in Scotland for nine years.
For much of that time Sofija lived in vulnerable and highly insecure places and eventually experienced street homelessness. She said: “It was a horrible shock, and an experience that almost destroyed me. I was constantly scrambling for somewhere to stay.”
Jamal has been living in the UK for 17 years, arriving to seek asylum from persecution abroad. He said: “You are not able to work. You cannot work. You cannot support your family. You cannot support your kids… it turned [my] relationship upside down.”
Kunal arrived in the UK more than a decade ago as a 26-year-old keen to pursue his education and escape homophobic persecution in his home country which had left him feeling mentally broken.
Unable to afford student accommodation, Kunal initially stayed in an overcrowded two-room flat with 12 other people, making it difficult to focus on his studies. After he was robbed, his college closed and his visa application was refused, he became homeless, sleeping rough and in shelters where he faced threats and exploitation. He walked the streets in minus temperatures, battling hunger, in fear for his safety and terrified of losing his vital documents.
A turning point came when the Scottish Refugee Council assisted him in submitting a fresh application and he is currently in temporary accommodation. Kunal remains anxious about his uncertain future, caught between the fear of danger at home and his continued insecurity in the UK. He longs to return home but knows doing so would expose him “to certain danger.” But he added: “I’m not safe here [either]”
Kunal explained that he has intentionally given away belongings because of his housing insecurity, saying: “I’m trying to reduce my stuff now, give it to charity and stuff, so it will be easier to move from place to place.”
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