Are Asylum Seekers eligible for the ESF Youth programme?
To be eligible for support from the European Social Fund an individual must be legally resident in the UK and able to take paid employment in a European Union member state. Asylum seekers are therefore not usually eligible for ESF support because they have not yet had their request for permission to stay in the UK approved. Asylum seekers who registered prior to June 2003 and were granted special status, enabling them to take paid employment while their application was being assessed, can be supported by ESF. New asylum seekers are not eligible as ESF participants unless they were granted permission to work before June 2003. All asylum seekers may be supported on ESF-funded pre-vocational projects where these are not part of provision that is designed to lead to employment. However, a core aim of the ESF Youth programme is to provide support which will enable participants to secure sustained employment. Asylum seekers who do not have a right to take paid employment in the UK are theref
