The Home Office announced in June 2026 that asylum seekers will be required to pay towards the cost of their accommodation if they have the means to do so, according to government guidance.

The UK spends a lot of money on asylum provision. Government figures show it costs roughly £3 billion per year, with hotels alone costing about £6 million every day. Much of this money has been counted as overseas development aid — money normally intended to help poorer countries — because it's spent on people who have arrived in the UK asking for protection.

What asylum support currently provides

Asylum seekers in hotels or in council accommodation receive £49.18 per week to cover food, clothing and toiletries. Those in Home Office accommodation receive less: £8.86 per week from January 2024. These are small amounts with little left over.

The government has not said how much money it expects to collect from the new contribution requirement, or exactly how it will decide who can afford to pay. The fixed-rate charge — the same amount for everyone — suggests the government chose simplicity over working out each person's individual circumstances.

Why this matters

Most of the UK's asylum spending has been classified as overseas aid, which has meant less money available for aid programmes in other countries. The government also runs a separate scheme: it offers migrants up to £3,000 if they choose to leave the UK and go elsewhere. This creates something of an odd situation — the state pays some people to leave while charging others to stay.

More fundamentally, this policy does not address why asylum accommodation costs so much in the first place. The amount spent depends on how long asylum seekers remain in the system waiting for their claims to be decided. Processing claims faster would reduce costs much more than asking people to pay would. The government frames the policy as part of discouraging asylum claims, but whether a fixed charge actually changes people's behaviour is not clear.