Prior to 2005, all refugees that became tenants of the Wakefield District Housing (WDH) were subject to a charge for the furnishing of the property which they were provided. Refugees were not permitted to opt out of this fee, and all properties were provided furnished. Commonly these furnishings were sub-standard, often of ill-repair. It was also unclear as to who was responsible for renewing the furnishings and the tenants themselves prohibited from changing the furnishings. The weekly charge of £16.47 was extremely high for such small substances: it was, at that time, greater than the weekly Child Benefit Allowance and represented a significant outgoing to the family budgets of many refugees.
RASA began its campaign to scrap the charge in February 2004. RASA raised this issue with the then Head of Housing, Kevin Dodd (now Chief Executive of Wakefield and District Housing) and a committee was formed to address this issue. With the support of the Head of Housing and Wakefield Asylum Seeker Unit Team, we succeeded in scrapping the inequitable furniture charges for refugees.
