Every asylum claim costs taxpayers £18.7K leaving Home Office with £1.7bn bill

Every asylum claim lodged in Britain costs taxpayers an average of £18,700, according to newly published Home Office figures.

The figure, described in official background papers to the new Immigration and Asylum Bill, covers accommodation, living support, administrative processing and legal appeals.

It means the overall system is now costing billions each year, with more than 93,000 claims lodged in the year to March alone.

The Home Office said the average figure is based on asylum claims made between July 2024 and June 2025.

It includes the cost of housing asylum seekers, providing financial support and processing applications through the system, including appeals.

The department said the average reflects a mixed cohort of applicants, including those arriving illegally via small boat crossings and those who initially entered the UK legally on work or student visas before claiming asylum.

How much is the asylum system costing overall?

Based on the same average figure, the 93,525 asylum claims lodged in the year to March are estimated to cost around £1.7billion to process and support.

In June alone, 2,742 people arrived in the UK via small boat crossings. Using the same calculation, that monthly intake would represent more than £51million in costs to the taxpayer.

However, officials stressed that actual costs vary significantly depending on the type of claim and individual circumstances.

Earlier Home Office data has shown that it costs an average of £158,000 per year to support a family of asylum seekers.

What does the wider data show about asylum and migration?

The Government’s impact assessment, published alongside the Immigration and Asylum Bill and reported by the Daily Mail, also revealed that more than three-quarters of applicants making “right to family and private life” claims under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights were unemployed at the time of application.

The document said this figure included both people with and without permission to work in the UK.

It stated that 76 per cent of applicants were “unemployed at the time of application”.

Could reforms increase asylum claims?

The assessment also warned that proposed changes to crack down on perceived abuse of Article 8 human rights provisions could unintentionally increase asylum claims.

It said that a rise in refused Article 8 claims could lead to more people entering the immigration enforcement system, including both voluntary departures and enforced removals.

However, it noted that enforcement capacity is limited, making it difficult to predict the overall impact on removals.

The document added that in 2022 only five per cent of family and private life refusals involving immigration enforcement led to enforced returns.

It also warned that increasing the number of refusals could lead to a rise in asylum applications.

What has the political reaction been?

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticised Labour’s approach, dismissing it as minor adjustments that would have little practical effect.

He said previous attempts to refine Article 8 rules had already failed.

He added that the only effective way to reduce illegal migration would be for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and modern slavery protections entirely, allowing for faster deportations.

Mr Philp said: “The only way to end illegal immigration is to pull out of the ECHR and modern slavery treaty entirely, which will enable all illegal immigrants to be deported within a week of arrival.

“Only the Conservatives have a properly thought out plan to do that.

“These gimmicks from Labour will not move the needle and are simply performative – just like their previous absurd claim to smash the gangs.”