Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - For the first time since 2015, the number of recipients of asylum seeker benefits in North Rhine-Westphalia has increased again. At the end of 2021, with a total of almost 86,000, it was 5,330 people or 6.6 percent higher than a year earlier. This was reported by the State Statistical Office on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. Especially in the last quarter of 2021 there was a sharp increase in newcomers.
More than half of the people with control benefit came from Asia (57.3 percent), almost a quarter from Europe (23.6 percent) and 16.9 percent from Africa. The most common countries of origin were Iraq and Syria, where 2021 was also the largest increase compared to the previous year, reported IT NRW.
Around 62 percent of those receiving benefits to cover daily needs were of working age between 18 and 64 at the end of 2021 - the proportion was thus 2.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier. At 37.1 percent, children and young people were the second largest age group (plus 2.8 percentage points). Unaccompanied minors from abroad are not among the recipients of standard benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. As at the end of 2020, people aged 65 and over accounted for 1.2 percent of all standard benefit recipients. The majority of recipients are male.
