The country paid some €1.03 billion to support the daily needs of 154,000 asylum seekers in 2007 – 20.1 percent less than the previous year. These numbers reveal that the number of asylum seekers receiving state funding is lower than in was in 1994, when statistical analysis began.
State aid for asylum seekers reached a high in 1996, with 490,000 applicants and a total of €2.88 billion.
Some 52,000 asylum seekers in Germany received additions to their daily allowances in 2007 for illness, pregnancy or the birth of a child. These benefits were down 21 percent from the previous year.
The statistics for asylum seeker social benefits are not identical with the actual number of asylum seekers in Germany, Destatis said. Some asylum seekers do not claim state help to support themselves, a spokeswoman said.
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