Money for UK hosts of Ukrainian refugees should be ‘doubled’, says minister
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Money for UK hosts of Ukrainian refugees should be ‘doubled’, says minister

Jewish peer Lord Harrington says payments to those housing refugees, including many families from the community, should increase to help with soaring household costs

Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor

Lord Harrington of Watford
Lord Harrington of Watford

Refugees Minister Lord Richard Harrington has called for payments to those hosting Ukrainian refugees to be doubled, to take into account soaring household costs.

The Jewish peer said he feared around a quarter of the 25,000 households hosting refugees would pull out after six months – meaning new homes will have to be found for those who fled Ukraine for the UK.

Lord Harrington confirmed to The Telegraph: “I’ve asked the Treasury for the second six months to increase the thank you payment from £350 to £700.

“People are under pressure. I can’t say with hard evidence, but all my gut tells me that if they are in financial difficulty [the increased payment] will help a lot.”

The Leeds-born peer’s demand came ahead of Wednesday’s six-month anniversary of the Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Harrington said he was “optimistic” that the Treasury would agree to his request, saying: “Every single person who takes part in a sponsorship saves the state the cost of renting flats for people, so I think there’s a financial reason as well as a moral and humanitarian one.”

There are now about 115,000 Ukrainian refugees staying in the country, housed in 25,000 homes.

Hosts, including many from the Jewish community, were asked to commit to an initial six-month stay. In the first three months of the scheme, the Government spent £300 million on funding local authorities to provide services for refugees and to finance the thank you payments.

Lord Harrington said that in some parts of the country, the thank you payment is a “very important contributor to household expenses – electricity bills, gas bills”.

UK households are facing crippling energey bills, with some experts predicted inflation with rise to 18 per cent in January.

The new energy price cap that will come into force in October will be announced this week by Ofgem, the industry regulator, with a rise from the current £1,971 to around £3,600 per year expected.

Harrington had been brought back into government earlier this year to help ease concerns over the Ukrainian refugee crisis, having previously worked on the Syrian refugee crisis.

In an interview with Jewish News in June he said of his role helping refugees: “I believe, for all of us Jewish people, it is like our destiny,” he says. “We were once there.”

Harrington had earlier been responsible for turning the Conservative Friends of Israel group into a formidable organisation alongside Lord Polak.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: