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. Married and cohabiting couples share responsibility for the family's finances. This means that the Swedish Migration Agency will also take your partner's income into account when assessing whether or not you have the right to financial support.
You must inform the Swedish Migration Agency if your financial situation changes, for example, if you or your partner gets a job. It is a criminal offence not to inform us that you or your partner are earning money at the same time as you are paid a daily allowance. Your right to a daily allowance may also be affected if you move. You must always notify the Swedish Migration Agency if you move to 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 amount of daily allowance you receive also depends on whether you live together with a spouse or partner.
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 live together with their partner
- SEK 19/day per person aged 18–20 who live together with their parents
- 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 live together with their partner
- SEK 61/day per person aged 18–20 who live together with their parents
- SEK 50/day for children 11–17 years old.
- SEK 43/day for children 4–10 years old
- SEK 37/day for children 0–3 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.
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 have the right to live in the accommodation provided by the Swedish Migration Agency and to receive financial support until the day they leave Sweden or are discharged from the Reception Unit for some other reason.
Special grant
Special grants are intended for needs that are not covered by the daily allowance. To receive a special grant, you must prove that you have a great need for the item or service and that you cannot pay for it yourself.
You can apply for one of the following special grant packages:
- standard package for infants (0–1 years)
- standard package for school supplies
- standard package for winter clothes
- baby carriage
- eyeglasses.
You can also apply for a special grant for expenses for medical care, medication, and medical travel.
If you need a product or service that does not fit into any of the standard packages or that does not relate to expenses for medical care and medication, you can also apply for this. You can only get a grant for the cheapest options required to meet your need.
The Swedish Migration Agency will always make an individual assessment of your need.
Application for a special grant, form Mot78 (in Swedish) Pdf, 671.8 kB, opens in new window.
This is how you fill in the application for a special grant
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.
When the Swedish Migration Agency notifies you via simplified service, we will send the decision by post to the address you have given us. The next business day, we will send a new letter with a verification message to the same address, informing you that we have sent you our decision. The verification message states the date on which the decision was sent. Two weeks after the decision was sent, the Swedish Migration Agency considers that you have been notified of the decision. 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).
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.