What financial and housing support are asylum seekers entitled to in the UK?
Executive summary
Asylum seekers in the UK cannot access mainstream welfare benefits and are generally barred from work; instead, destitute asylum seekers may apply to the Home Office for accommodation and a subsistence payment while their claim is decided [1] [2]. As of June 2025 the government reported about 106,000 asylum seekers receiving support and roughly 103,000 provided with accommodation; local authorities also receive dispersal funding tied to bedspaces (£1,200 per accommodated person in the 2025–26 Funding Instruction) [3] [4].
1. What the state currently guarantees: basic accommodation and a subsistence payment
If an asylum seeker is destitute they can apply to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)/the Home Office for asylum support in the form of housing, money, or both; accommodation is provided on a “no‑choice” basis and can be a flat, house, hostel, bed & breakfast or hotel run by private contractors [1] [5] [6]. The Home Office reports hundreds of thousands in its accommodation system — 106,000 supported and 103,000 in accommodation as of June 2025 — showing the scale of guaranteed provision under the current legal duty to prevent destitution [3].
2. What asylum seekers cannot get: mainstream benefits, social housing and normal right to rent
Subject to limited exceptions, asylum seekers are ineligible for mainstream non‑contributory benefits such as Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and many local council schemes; most are also not permitted to work while claims are processed [2] [7] [1]. Guidance and legal frameworks for “public funds” set these exclusions out and show they are embedded in UK immigration law [8].
3. Practical delivery: hotels, dispersal and the role of contractors
Since 2020 the Home Office has relied heavily on hotels and contingency accommodation; almost a third of asylum seekers were in such contingency accommodation (mostly hotels) by March 2025, and the department has sought to reduce hotel costs by increasing occupancy and lowering nightly rates [9]. Accommodation is dispersed geographically under a long‑standing dispersal policy and provided by private sector contractors; local authorities also receive Home Office dispersal grants linked to numbers of occupied bedspaces [1] [4].
4. Levels and formats of financial support — low, cash‑limited, sometimes cashless
The cash subsistence paid to asylum seekers is well below mainstream benefit levels and often delivered via a card/payments system; refused asylum seekers who qualify for limited restart support (Section 4) receive non‑cash or card‑based assistance and face complex eligibility checks about assets [10] [11] [12]. Campaign groups argue these rates push people below the poverty line; official briefings and charity guides document the narrowness and administrative hurdles of access [11] [12].
5. Transition on grant of status: move‑on period and access to benefits
When someone is granted refugee status asylum support usually stops after a short “move on” period; recent rules extended and then adjusted that move‑on window, and newly recognised refugees must apply for mainstream benefits and housing (for which they may now be eligible) while taking steps like obtaining a National Insurance number [13] [14]. Citizens Advice and other guidance stress a potential gap between asylum support ending and first benefit entitlement, with advance payments sometimes needed [15] [14].
6. Policy change under consultation: discretionary support and employability tests
The government in November 2025 has consulted on reforms that would make some elements of housing and financial support discretionary, targeting people judged able to work or with assets, and modelling elements on other European systems; newspapers and broadcasters report plans to cut support for those “fit to work” and to add conditions that could exclude more people from guaranteed help [16] [17]. The Home Office frames changes as cost‑control and deterrence; refugee and charity groups warn of increased destitution and legal challenges — both perspectives appear in the public record [16] [17].
7. Money for councils, the politics of cost, and opaque outcomes
Central funding to local authorities is being adjusted: the 2025–26 Funding Instruction pays local authorities based on occupied bedspaces and net growth, with a headline figure of £1,200 per accommodated asylum seeker in the instruction’s formula [4]. Parliament briefings and government statements show the policy sits amid wider fiscal pressure on aid and domestic costs, which is explicitly driving reform proposals [18] [3].
Limitations and unanswered questions
Available sources outline the architecture of support, recent statistics and government proposals, but do not provide a single, up‑to‑date table of current cash rates by household size, nor full texts of the proposed legal amendments; for precise amounts and eligibility checks in an individual case, guidance from GOV.UK or legal advisers is necessary (not found in current reporting) [5] [10].