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Controversial plans to replace backdated income support for refugees with a system of loans will be implemented in the autumn, it was revealed last week.

The Child Poverty Action Group said the plans could breach the Geneva Convention on Refugees, which stipulates that, for benefits entitlement, a country must treat refugees in the same way it does its own nationals.

Under the present system, asylum seekers granted refugee status are entitled to backdated payments of income support equivalent to the 30 per cent differential between National Asylum Support Service support and income support.

However, a Home Office spokesperson said the government was confident the move would not breach the convention.

The timescale for the plans, first outlined in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004, was contained in a government strategy on refugee integration published last week.

The strategy also includes plans for a mentoring scheme to give new refugees intensive one-to-one support with a dedicated caseworker to help them find work.

• Integration Matters from www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk