Migration de.indymedia
Payment card for asylum seekers: Berlin suspends cash limit
In Berlin there will initially no longer be a cash limit for refugees who have to use a payment card. The Berlin Refugee Council calls this a “partial success on a longer journey”. Whether the
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In Berlin there will initially no longer be a cash limit for refugees who have to use a payment card. The Berlin Refugee Council calls this a “partial success on a longer journey”. Whether the discriminatory payment cards will be abolished in the capital also depends on the coalition negotiations.
Berlin wants to suspend the limit on payment cards for refugees. Berlin was the last federal state to introduce the cards in August. Since then, asylum seekers have received a debit card instead of cash. As a rule, however, you can only withdraw 50 euros in cash per month. This will soon be over, ehhttps://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/zweihalb-monate-nach-einfuhrung-ba...Tagesspiegel reported.
The cash limit “actually has a discriminatory character,” said Social Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) to the newspaper. The Berlin Refugee Council had previously approved the introduction of the payment card in Berlin in accordance with the state anti-discrimination lawhttps://fluechtlingsrat-berlin.de/wp-content/uploads/beanstandung-septem...
The issuance of the payment card under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act is “discrimination against those entitled to benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act on the basis of their social status,” writes the organization in a twelve-page letter to the Senator for Social Affairs. This has now apparently led to Berlin giving in.
“Symptom of a racist special law”
Emily Barnickel from the Berlin Refugee Council writes to netzpolitik.org that they are of course happy that “the discriminatory cash cap is being suspended for the time being”. But that is not yet a complete success: the payment card is a symptom of “a racist special law, namely the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act”.
The Asylum Seekers Benefits Act specifies, among other things, what social benefits people are entitled to during their asylum procedure. However, it also regulates the claims of people who are obliged to leave the country or who have a toleration status. The level of benefits is below that of other social benefits such as social assistance.
Besides thathttps://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.897141.de/publikationen/">beschrit affects medical servicescompared to standard care from statutory health insurance. Treatments are only available for acute illnesses and pain, as well as for pregnant women, for vaccinations and for medically required preventive examinations. Organizations like Pro Asylhttps://www.proasyl.de/news/gesundheitfueralle-klusiv-mit-der-diskrimin...for this reason“the systematic violation of refugees’ right to health”.
In recent years, the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act has been tightened several times. The traffic light government at the time not only made it possible to pay out benefits via payment card, it also made it possiblehttps://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/rueckfuehrungen-abschiebun...2024 also through the “Repatriation Improvement Act”the time in which refugees have to live with benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act - from 18 to 36 months.
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“Partial success on a longer path”
Emily Barnickel writes of a “partial success on a longer journey” with regard to the suspended payment card limit. The Berlin Refugee Council calls for “complete social and legal equality for all people in Berlin and Germany”. This includes “the abolition of the so-called payment card, which is discriminatory and wastes tax money, the abolition of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act and much more.”
The payment cards that are now issued almost everywhere in Germany are being run againsthttps://freiheitsrechte.org/themen/sociale-teilhabe/bezahlkarte">inseveral federal states are suing. So far, there have been decisions in some urgent proceedings that rejected a blanket 50 euro limit in view of specific life circumstances. However, the results of the main proceedings are still pending.
The criticism of the payment card goes beyond the cash limit: some arehttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/bezahlkarten-fuer-gefluechtete-das-gegentei...Transfers complicated for usersand must be applied for and activated, which limits their participation. Some also report thathttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/bezahlkarten-fuer-gefluechtete-hoffentlich-...Supermarket checkouts are discriminated againstbecause the cards make them recognizable as refugees.
The end of the cash limit in Berlin is not final. Coalition negotiations between the Left, the Greens and the SPD have just begun in the capital. The left hadhttps://dielinke.berlin/fileadmin/download/2026/Wahlprogramm_AGH_2026_Di...the electionsThe Greens also announced that they did not want to introduce or abolish the discriminatory payment cardhttps://gruene.berlin/fileadmin/BE/lv_berlin/files/Wahlprogramm_2026_Onl...them off. Just like -https://spd.berlin/media/2026/08/SPD_Berlin_Wahlprogramm_20260521-v4-1.p...Election program– the SPD.
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