Aysu Biçer
30 June 2026•Update: 30 June 2026
Asylum seekers who are able to repay the cost of their accommodation and financial support will be required to do so under new government plans.
The Immigration and Asylum Bill will give the Home Office new powers to recover the cost of asylum support from adults who have received subsistence payments or accommodation, provided they have access to sufficient funds.
Under the proposals, eligible adults will pay a flat-rate monthly charge above a set threshold. The government said the primary payment mechanism is expected to be direct payments to the Home Office, while options are also being explored to recover the money through the tax and benefits systems.
Migrants will be required to repay the full amount before becoming eligible for settlement. Those who leave the UK will also have to complete their repayments if they wish to return in the future.
The home secretary will have the power to adjust both the charge and the repayment thresholds, with ministers saying the system will be designed to remain fair to taxpayers while ensuring no migrant is forced into destitution.
Under the plans, migrants are expected to repay around £10,000 ($13,000) in total as a contribution toward the overall cost of the asylum support they received.
"The cost of asylum accommodation on the British taxpayer is too high. We have already reduced asylum costs by £1 billion ($1.3 billion), but it is also right that we ask those who can contribute to do so," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement.
“Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility. Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”
The government said asylum support currently represents a significant financial burden, with accommodation and support costing £4 billion last year.
Ministers said 31 hotels have closed since April, with hundreds of asylum seekers moved into basic accommodation, including former military sites.
According to Home Office estimates, the average cost of accommodating an asylum seeker is £23.25 per person per night in dispersal accommodation and £144 per night in hotels. Weekly subsistence payments range from £9.95 to £49.18 per person.
Responding to the government's announcements, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights director, said: "Several proposals are deeply alarming: from attempts to weaken protections for families and sideline long-established human rights obligations to plans for a Home Office-controlled appeals system without legally qualified judges, and proposals to warehouse people seeking safety in mass barrack-style accommodation centers, deny them the right to work, and then present them with a bill for it."
Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, told the BBC that the measures would move the immigration system "in a more restrictive direction."
"The government goal appears to be to tighten up that system as much as they can while still remaining compliant with international refugee law and human rights law," she added.
