Astonishing cost of asylum: Home Office confirms each claim costs the taxpayer £18,700

By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 18:24, 1 July 2026 | Updated: 18:24, 1 July 2026 Every asylum claim lodged in Britain hits the taxpayer with an £18,700 bill, astonishing new figures disclose. The average sum includes the cost of providing accommodation and living costs, as well as the sums spent on processing claims and any legal appeals. It will include Channel small boat arrivals who are housed in migrant hotels as well as less costly types of claimant, such as those who arrive legally on work or student visas and then claim asylum in a bid to remain in Britain. The Home Office published the figure in background papers to the new Immigration and Asylum Bill, published on Tuesday. The costings were based on ‘asylum claims from July 2024 to June 2025’, the papers showed. It would mean the 93,525 asylum claims lodged in the year to March will cost the taxpayer a staggering £1.7billion to resolve. There were 2,742 small boat arrivals in June which, using the same average figure, will cost more than £51million to support and process. However, the true cost of dealing with different types of asylum applicants will vary. Each asylum claim lodged in Britain costs the taxpayer £18,700. Pictured: Channel small boat migrants attempt to board an overloaded dinghy bound for the UK at Wissant beach, France, on Tuesday Migrants hold onto a raft after getting into difficulties trying to board a dinghy to cross into the English Channel on Tuesday in Wissant, France Migrants wait on a beach to board a dinghy to cross into the English Channel on Tuesday For example, the Home Office disclosed earlier this year that it costs an average of £158,000 a year to support a family of asylum seekers. The official ‘impact assessment’ published alongside the Bill also revealed that more than three-quarters of those who made ‘right to family and private life’ under human rights laws are unemployed. Your browser does not support iframes. A breakdown of claims made here under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights said 76 per cent were jobless. The papers said the applicants were ‘unemployed at the time of application’ and it included ‘both those with and without the right to employment’. In a further development, the papers add that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s proposals to crack down on abuse of Article 8 may even lead to a spike in asylum claims. The document said: ‘An increase in refused Article 8 ECHR claims is likely to lead to an increase in the number of migrants that require Immigration Enforcement involvement to exit the UK, with includes both voluntary and enforced removals. ‘The capacity for enforced removals is fixed, so it is difficult to say whether there will be an overall increase in enforced removals. ‘However, in 2022, only five per cent of family and private life refusals that had Immigration Enforcement involvement were enforced returns. ‘To note, increasing the number of refusals may also increase the number of people claiming asylum.’ Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood published her new Immigration and Asylum Bill earlier this week Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has dismissed Labour’s plan as ‘minor tweaks which will make no difference whatsoever in practice’. He said previous attempts to ‘fine-tune’ Article 8 claims ‘did not work’. ‘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,’ he said. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.