Basic income: Treat asylum seeker children fairly, says Mark Drakeford

Asylum seeker children should be treated fairly, the first minister has insisted, in a row with Rishi Sunak over Wales' basic income pilot.

The £20m scheme offers £1,600 a month to 18-year-olds leaving care, including unaccompanied asylum seekers.

The prime minister has said it was unbelievable Welsh Labour ministers wanted to pay "illegal migrants".

But Mark Drakeford said he wanted "some of the most vulnerable children" you will ever see treated fairly.

BBC Wales was told a small number of asylum seekers are taking part in the scheme, while the Welsh government has denied that the young people involved are illegal migrants.

Ministers launched the basic income pilot programme last year, to see how the payments could help care leavers be better placed as they become more independent.

From the start of the project, unaccompanied asylum seeker children turning 18 have been able to apply for the money, which amounts to £1,280 a month after tax.

The scheme offers unconditional monthly payments for two years to those who have been in care for 13 weeks or more.

Figures up to 8 March showed there were 294 recipients of the basic income pilot. Around 500 are expected to join the scheme by the time it closes to new applicants in June.

Wednesday's row came after the Welsh government asked for legal aid rules to be eased for recipients of the pilot scheme.

Conservative ministers refused the request earlier this week.

Speaking to BBC Wales, during a visit to Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, on Thursday, Mark Drakeford said he was "not interested" in the political row.

"I'm on the side of children, that's whose side I am on," he said, "children who end up in Wales from some of the most war-torn parts of the globe.

"They come without parents, so the local authority acts as their parent, they are a child in care.

"All we have asked the prime minister is that when those children leave the care of the local authority they are not disadvantaged by being part of the system here in Wales.

"I'm not interested in the political dispute about it, I am interested in how some of the most vulnerable children you will ever come across are treated fairly and that's all we're asking for."

In Wednesday's exchanges in the House of Commons, Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said Labour ministers wanted to exempt asylum seekers "from having to pay the same legal bills the rest of us would be subject to".

Then, at Prime Minister's Questions, Rishi Sunak said: "I know the Labour leader [Sir Keir Starmer] has said that the Welsh Labour government is his blueprint, and unbelievably as my honourable member said, Labour in Wales are trying to pay illegal migrants £1,600."

Three Welsh ministers, including Counsel General Mick Antoniw, wrote to the UK government in March asking if recipients of basic income could be exempted from means testing thresholds for legal aid.

Officials say it is unlikely those in receipt of basic income payments would qualify for legal aid under the "means" test, should they need legal representation.

In response justice minister Lord Bellamy and David TC Davies rejected the Welsh government request.

They added: "Receipt of income from the pilot does not mean they would be ineligible for legal aid".

The law society says that asylum seekers can be entitled to free legal advice to help with asylum claims if they have little or no money.