Financial support for asylum seekers

It is important that you can support yourself. If you do not earn your own money and you do not have some other resources, you can apply for financial support from the Migration Agency. The financial support is made up of several parts: daily allowance, accommodation compensation and special grant.

When you seek asylum you must tell the Migration Agency how much money or other resources you have. If you do not have any own resources you get daily allowance to cover your daily expenses.

If your financial situation changes, for example if you get a job, you must tell this to the Migration Agency. Not to tell that you are earning money while receiving daily allowance is a criminal offense. Your right to daily allowance may also be affected if you move. Therefore, always inform the Migration Agency if you have a new address.

Read more about what you should do if offered a job while waiting for a decision

Daily allo­wance

Daily allowance varies depending on whether you live in one of the Swedish Migration Agency’s accommodations where food is included or in an accommodation where food is not included. The size of the daily allowance is also affected if you choose to live in your own accommodation, for example if you want to stay with friends or relatives.

In accom­mo­da­tion where food is included the daily allo­wance is

  • SEK 24/day for adults who are alone
  • SEK 19/day per person for adults who share household expenses
  • SEK 12/day for children up to and including 17 years of age.

In accom­mo­da­tion where food is not included the daily allo­wance is

  • SEK 71/day for adults who are alone
  • SEK 61/day per person for adults who share household expenses
  • SEK 37/day for children 0–3 years old
  • SEK 43/day for children 4–10 years old
  • SEK 50/day for children 11–17 years old.

Families which have more than two children will get the whole daily allowance for the two eldest children and half the daily allowance for the other children.

Apart from food the daily allowance must suffice for clothes and shoes, health care and medicines, dental care, toilet articles, other consumer goods and leisure activities.

The daily allowance may be reduced if you

  • do not cooperate to establish your identity
  • hinder the investigation of your asylum request by hiding away
  • do not cooperate to organize your trip back home if you have received a decision rejecting your request or that you will be deported.

You may lose the right to daily allowance if you move to an area with social and economic challenges. You may also lose the right to daily allowance and special grants if you provide the Swedish Migration Agency with a different address than where you actually live, for example a postal box address.

Read more about living in your own accommodation, and verify whether the address of where you want to move might affect your right to compensation

The form Application for daily allowance (Mot23) (in Swedish) Pdf, 1.1 MB, opens in new window.

How to fill out the daily allowance form

The right to finan­cial support stops

You will lose your right to financial support once you have been granted a residence permit. If you are living in accommodation provided by the Swedish Migration Agency you will as a rule lose the financial support when you are received by a municipality. If you are living in your own accommodation the right to financial support stops one month after you have been granted a residence permit.

You may also lose your right to financial support if you have received a decision about rejection or deportation and the decision has come into effect, or when the time limit for leaving the country voluntarily has expired. This applies to adults and people who are not living with children under the age of 18 that they are the parent/legal guardian of. Your right to financial support also stops if you leave the country.

Families with children may continue living in the temporary accommodations provided by the Swedish Migration Agency and keep the right to financial support until they leave Sweden or for some other reason are deregistered from the reception unit.

Special grant

If you have a very strong need of something not covered by the daily allowance you can apply for a special grant for it. You must demonstrate that you have a strong need of the item or service and that you cannot pay for it by yourself. It can be for example eyeglasses, a baby carriage or warm winter shoes. Migration Agency always makes an individual evaluation of the need.

You can only receive a grant for the cheapest alternative which is needed to satisfy the need.

Your right to special grant may be affected if you move to your own accommodation in an area that a municipality has reported as an area with social and economic challenges.

When you are called to come to the Migration Agency for example to see about your asylum investigation, to meet with your reception administration officer or to participate in a group information event, you can get an allowance for your travel costs. Talk with the administration officer you will meet about his.

Application for a special grant for adults, form number Mot78 (in Swedish) Pdf, 1.1 MB, opens in new window.

This is how you fill in the form for a special grant for grownups

Application for a special grant for children, form number Mot79 (in Swedish) Pdf, 654.3 kB, opens in new window.

This is how you fill in the form for a special grant for children

Application for a special grant for unaccompanied children and youths, form number Mot72 (in Swedish) Pdf, 1.1 MB, opens in new window.

Accom­mo­da­tion compen­sa­tion

If you have got a job or a job offer, you can apply for accommodation compensation. This is meant for employment which is longer than a three month period and when you have to move to a place where the Migration Agency does not have any residences to offer. The accommodation compensation is

  • SEK 850/month for families
  • SEK 350/month for a one person household.

Deci­sion about finan­cial compen­sa­tion

When the Migration Agency has taken a decision about financial compensation, you will receive an acknowledgment about the decision

  • via an administrative officer at your reception entity or
  • through the so-called simplified notification.

Simplified notification means that the Swedish Migration Agency will send the decision via regular mail to the address you have given us. The next day we send another letter to the same address informing you that we have mailed a decision. We do this in order to minimize the risk of an error. In this way the Migration Agency considers that you have been informed of the decision (were notified) two weeks after we sent it to you. After that you have three weeks to appeal the decision.

If the address you gave us cannot be used and you are registered with the Swedish population register, the decision and the control letter will be sent to the address listed as your home address in the population register.

Also remember to check your mail on a regular basis.

Bank card

If you are granted daily allowance from the Swedish Migration Agency, you will receive a bank card that is connected to the account where the money will be paid out.

Read more about the bank card for asylum seekers

If you want to appeal

If you think that the Migration Agency has taken a wrong decision about your compensation, you have the right to appeal the decision. In this case you must deliver your appeal before the Migration Agency within three weeks from the day you got knowledge (were notified) of the decision. If the Migration Agency does not change the decision your appeal will be handed over to an administrative court of law which will examine the decision again. If the administrative court rejects your appeal, you can appeal before an Appeals Court (kammarrätten).

Read more about how to appeal

If you have ques­tions about your daily allo­wance or other compen­sa­tions

If you have general questions about financial support for asylum seekers you can call the Migration Agency. But if you have questions about your own compensation you have to come to the Reception Unit. The employees of the Migration Agency cannot talk about this on the telephone due to secrecy rules. Take your LMA card with you when you visit the Reception Unit.

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