People granted asylum in the UK will be forced to pay back around £10,000 towards the cost of their accommodation and support once they start earning, the government has announced — a move critics have branded an “extra tax on refugees” that will make it “harder for families to rebuild their lives”.
The plan, included in the Immigration and Asylum Bill to be introduced in Parliament on Tuesday, will give Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood powers to recover costs from adults who have received asylum support. Those who earn enough will be required to repay a flat-rate sum, expected to be set at £10,000, over time — and must clear the debt before they can become eligible to settle permanently in the UK.
“People granted asylum in the UK will be required to repay around £10,000 under new rules, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced.”
Mahmood said the changes would demonstrate that “asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility”. She added: “Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.” The Home Office has not yet set the earnings threshold at which monthly instalments would begin, but the home secretary will have the power to adjust the charge and repayment thresholds to ensure they are “fair to the taxpayer” and do not “force any migrant into destitution”.
The announcement comes as the government disclosed that around £4bn of taxpayers’ money was spent on supporting asylum seekers last year. The average cost of housing an asylum seeker for one night in publicly-owned accommodation is £23.25, and £144 in a hotel, while weekly subsistence payments range from £9.95 to £49.18 per person.
The plans have drawn sharp criticism from refugee charities and academics. Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “The reason why many need asylum support is because the Home Office itself bans asylum seekers from working while their claims are being assessed. Asylum support is only given to people who are at risk of being destitute, so this new financial burden would only harm those who arrive on our shores with nothing.”
Zoe Dexter, from the Helen Bamber Foundation human rights charity, described the policy as “more performative cruelty from the Government”. She said: “Charging refugees around £10,000 once they finally find work is the opposite of integration. These are people who have fled persecution and extreme violence, often arriving with nothing, before spending months or years in overcrowded, dilapidated accommodation.”
The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory questioned how much money the government could actually recoup. Dr Madeleine Sumption noted that in 2023, an estimated 13% of people granted refugee status five years earlier were earning at least £20,000, with the rest either not working or on lower earnings. The data, she said, suggests “a relatively small share of people granted asylum would earn enough” unless thresholds were set significantly below the minimum wage.