What specific asylum support benefit rates were changed in the UK in 2024 and 2025?
Executive summary
The clearest, directly documented change in asylum support benefit rates in the UK from the provided reporting is the January 2024 adjustment: the Home Office announced that asylum support rates would change on 8 January 2024, including an increase to the standard weekly payment (reported by local and sector briefings) [1]. Reporting in subsequent sources gives an indicative cash figure for weekly subsistence in dispersed flats—£49.18 per week—which campaigners and fact-checkers used to compare asylum payments with mainstream Universal Credit rates, but the material supplied does not show a separately published new rate for 2025 [2] [3].
1. What changed in January 2024: a government increase in the “standard weekly payment”
Government announcements and local migration partners recorded that asylum support rates were revised from 8 January 2024, with the Home Office updating the standard weekly subsistence payment that is provided alongside accommodation under Section 95 support for destitute asylum applicants [1] [3]. Civil-society and local migration briefings flagged this as an increase to the “standard weekly payment” that asylum seekers receive for essentials while housed by the Home Office, a move presented by the Department as part of routine uprating or administrative changes to subsistence [1] [3].
2. How much does that weekly subsistence equate to in published commentary and fact-checking?
Independent fact-checking and NGO reporting cited concrete weekly subsistence figures in 2024/25: asylum seekers housed in dispersed flats were described as receiving £49.18 per week in subsistence, a figure used to contrast asylum support with mainstream benefits such as Universal Credit (reported at £92.34 per week for comparison) [2]. Those figures have been repeatedly cited in sector briefings and fact-checks to illustrate the relative level of cash support available to people accommodated under Section 95, though the Home Office’s own line-by-line published rate tables are not reproduced in the supplied snippets [2] [3].
3. Section 95 and Section 4 context: different support forms and non-cash elements
The asylum support regime includes distinct legal routes — Section 95 provides accommodation plus subsistence while claims are considered and Section 4 can provide support to refused asylum-seekers with specific eligibility; the latter is often delivered in a non-cash format and can be harder to access [3] [4]. Campaigners note that Section 4 support levels are set at parity with Section 95 in some cases but access and delivery differ; the supplied reporting reiterates the practical and legal distinctions rather than reporting a separate rate change for Section 4 in 2024 or 2025 [4] [3].
4. Other 2024-25 operational changes that affect the value of support but are not rate changes
Policy changes and pilots introduced in late 2024 affected how long support is received and how it is administered — for example, a Home Office pilot launched in December 2024 extended the “move-on” period after a refusal (when Section 95 usually stops after 21 days) to 56 days in pilot areas, which changes how long someone receives support rather than changing the weekly monetary rate [5]. Separately, wider government spending and accommodation strategies (use of hotels, bulk contracts and changes to the aid budget treatment of in-UK refugee costs) altered the fiscal and operational context for support but do not, in the supplied sources, constitute direct additional upratings of the weekly subsistence rate in 2025 [6] [7] [8].
5. What changed in 2025 according to available reporting — and what is not in the record provided
The supplied reporting documents significant policy shifts and spending decisions in 2025 — for example the government’s change to how overseas development aid is budgeted in relation to in-UK refugee costs — but none of the provided documents contains a clear, published new asylum subsistence weekly rate that took effect in 2025 equivalent to the January 2024 uprating [6] [7]. Therefore, on the narrow factual question of “what specific asylum support benefit rates were changed in 2024 and 2025,” the verifiable claim from these sources is the January 2024 uprating of the Home Office’s standard weekly payment [1], the commonly reported subsistence level of about £49.18 per week for those in flats in 2024/25 [2], and operational changes such as the move-on pilot extending support after refusal introduced in December 2024 [5]. The supplied material does not include an official Home Office table of revised rates for 2025 or a separate announced cash increase in 2025, so any further assertions about 2025 rate changes would require additional primary documentation not included here.