The tender for the project is scheduled to be issued in October, and the card is expected to be available everywhere from 2025. For federal institutions, this is practically a given, while the states can decide autonomously whether to adopt the model developed by the Interior Ministry. The aim is to provide basic services without cash if possible.
Only minor “resharpening”
The pilot test has been running since July, on the one hand in cooperation with the state of Upper Austria in the Steyr district with facilities including the Red Cross, Volkshilfe and Diakonie, and on the other hand in the federal care center in Bad Kreuzen. The results are positive, as Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) and the head of the Federal Care Agency Andreas Achrainer emphasized at a joint press conference. Only in smaller areas will “fine-tuning” be necessary, said the head of the department.
A total of around 130 cards are currently in circulation. All basic services are booked onto them. You can only withdraw pocket money of 40 euros from the ATM, and that once a month. The card should be able to be used to make purchases in as many shops as possible. However, it is blocked for certain sectors, such as betting shops, as the responsible group leader in the Ministry of the Interior, Elisabeth Wenger-Donig, explained. Transfers abroad are not permitted, but the card can be used to buy a ticket for public transport, for example.
Video: On Tuesday, a press conference took stock
Karner sees these advantages
For Karner, the benefits in kind card offers a number of advantages. It prevents cash payments to people smugglers, which are a common occurrence, as well as transfers of large sums to the refugees’ home regions: “It fuels the people smugglers’ business when too much money is paid out.” In addition, the card simplifies administration and is safer for the accommodation providers if money no longer has to be stored in the accommodation. Achrainer also pointed out the high costs incurred by transporting money. In addition, the carers in the facilities have more time to look after the refugees if they no longer have to devote themselves to activities such as handing out money.
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Karner also sees it as a positive thing that the card is handed out personally to every refugee aged 14 and over. This prevents all the money from ending up with a family patriarch, as has happened so far.
The rollout is set to gain further momentum in the autumn. The Federal Procurement Agency is set to put the new model out to tender in October. In 2025, the winning provider will then make the benefits-in-kind card available for the whole of Austria. Achrainer would also like the card to be used everywhere. Karner cannot force the states, as he himself emphasized: “The federal government cannot override the states,” he said, referring to the corresponding 15a agreement.
At the moment, very different models are being used in the different federal states. Tyrol has had its own card for some time, while Lower Austria has developed its own concept in parallel with the federal government, which has often been criticized. In many federal states, the cash benefits are simply paid out in cash at the accommodation facilities.
In Upper Austria, people are certainly satisfied with the pilot project. Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) said in a press release that the initial positive response to the benefits-in-kind card, including from NGOs, shows that the path he has taken is the right one. The responsible state councillor Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (ÖVP) stressed that this was not a hasty decision: “The card works and fulfils the intended purpose.” NEOS representative Stephanie Krisper, on the other hand, spoke of a diversionary tactic. In order to really save money in the system, social assistance would have to be reformed and paid out to accounts with geocontrol restrictions, from which no foreign transfers can be made.