Fact Check: What are asylum seekers entitled to while awaiting a decision?

August Graham, PA

False claims are often spread about what level of help asylum seekers are given while awaiting decisions on their application to stay in the UK.

These details can be obscured by not explaining properly where asylum seekers get their support, or exaggerating what support they are given.

Examples where items have been donated by a charity to a limited number of asylum seekers – for instance mobile phones – can be exaggerated to imply the Government gives that item to anyone who claims asylum. This is not always explicitly made clear by the person making the claim, leaving the reader or listener to draw their own conclusions.

Below is a list – although not exhaustive – of what asylum seekers are entitled to get from the UK Government while they are awaiting a decision on their case. That includes cash support (normally about £2,600 per year for asylum seekers in self-catered housing) and accommodation, but it only rarely includes mobile phones.

If someone claims that asylum seekers are getting something from the Government which is not on this list, that claim should be treated cautiously.

This does not mean the claim is wrong, but it should be examined thoroughly before it is shared with a wider audience.

For instance, if someone claims that an asylum seeker has been given a “brand-new iPhone” by the Government – first ask how the person knows the asylum seeker did not bring the phone with them from their home country, how they know it was provided by the Government (rather than a charity or an individual), and how the person knows the phone is new.

Here are other details of what asylum seekers might be provided with while their claim is assessed.

From the Government

The main support for asylum seekers is provided through central government. This includes accommodation, food and a small weekly allowance paid onto a card. There is also some support available from local government. This differs between regions so cannot all be captured in this report.

Accommodation: Asylum seekers will be given somewhere to live, if needed. This can include accommodation in a flat, house, hostel or bed and breakfast. They cannot choose where they live.

Cost of accommodation: Housing costs can vary greatly. It is much cheaper to provide so-called “dispersal accommodation” which tends to be self-catered in privately rented flats or houses. Dispersal accommodation costs around £20 per person per night, according to an October 2024 report from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The same report found that the average cost of a hotel was £158 per person per night in the second quarter of 2023. Hotels are intended to provide only short-term accommodation.

Money: The amount of money asylum seekers get from the Government is based on whether their accommodation provides food. If it does, they get £9.95 per week (£517.40 per year) for each person in their household. If it does not, they get £49.18 per person per week (£2,557.36 per year). This amount is loaded onto a special card which can be used to withdraw money from a cashpoint or to spend in shops.

Extra money: Asylum seekers with children can get extra financial support. A pregnant asylum seeker gets an extra £5.25 a week (£273 a year, or £210 over the course of a typical 40-week pregnancy). If they have a baby aged under one year they get an additional £9.50 a week (£494 a year). If they have a child aged one to three they also get £5.25 per week. They can also receive a one-off £300 payment if they have a baby due in 11 weeks or under, or a baby under six months old.

Example: Taking a fairly extreme case with a family of six living in non-catered accommodation and including a pregnant mother, a father, and children aged one month, one year, two years and three years, they would get an average of around £2,861.19 per person in a year (£17167.16 for the whole family) depending slightly on the children’s date of births.

Health and education: Asylum seekers can get access to NHS healthcare and are entitled to free prescriptions, dental care, and eye tests, as well as help paying for glasses. Their children get free schooling and can be entitled to free school meals.

Unaccompanied children: If a child under 18 years old comes to the UK without their parents and has no other relatives or a guardian they can stay with, they become the responsibility of social services. The way they are provided for is considerably different from what adults or children who arrive with their parents are given.

When the support ends: If a person without children aged under 18 is refused asylum and has no further right to appeal the decision, the normal support ends 21 days later, but they might be eligible for a different type of support if they are struggling to leave the UK, or for some other reasons. If their asylum application is accepted their support ends after 28 days.

Working: Asylum seekers are not generally allowed to work. However, if they have been waiting for more than a year through no fault of their own they can request permission to work. In most cases they are only allowed to take a job from a specific list. If they get a job that pays more than £49.18 per week their payments from the Government will normally be stopped. If they earn less than that, the payments will be reduced but not stopped entirely. They might also be asked to pay towards their accommodation.

Other support: People with disabilities or other “care needs” might be entitled to extra support from local government. Sometimes children in need and their families might also be given further support.

Legal aid: Government funding can be provided to pay for legal costs. Asylum seekers are able to claim legal aid for their asylum process, assuming they meet the normal income eligibility criteria.

Technology: Most technology provided to asylum seekers such as mobile phones or laptops is not paid for through taxpayer money. You can read more about that in the section on non-governmental support below. Sometimes the Government does provide phones when deemed necessary. For instance in 2021, the union for Border Force members said that 14,000 mobile phones had been handed to new arrivals because they could no longer be safely vetted face to face because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councils: Councils are required to help asylum seekers integrate into the community, but in England there is no guidance on what this support should be. They are entitled to English classes after waiting more than six months for a decision on their claim. Some councils offer help for asylum seekers which goes above what they are required to do by law. This can include discounts on council-run services, but also partnerships with private companies to offer discounts to asylum seekers and other less well-off groups of people.

Wandsworth Council, for example, opens its Access for All system to asylum seekers, benefits claimants, children who get free school meals and care leavers. The programme offers a limited number of free tickets to a council-run lido and half-price e-bike rental from private companies, among other things.

From non-governmental organisations
There are numerous privately funded bodies which provide support for those seeking asylum in the UK. These bodies can provide a range of assistance. The following is not an exhaustive list.

Technology: Laptops and phones and other pieces of kit are sometimes provided by charities or non-government bodies. One of these is Solidaritech which collects donated items and refurbishes them for refugees or asylum seekers. Vodafone donated more than 45,000 Sim cards by May 2024 to the British Red Cross to distribute to refugees and asylum seekers.

Deals with councils: Sometimes private companies will offer discounts to asylum seekers. One such example is where e-bike companies offer half-price rides in Wandsworth.

Legal help: There are several organisations that offer free legal assistance for asylum seekers. Some focus on helping them to appeal against Government decisions on accommodation and other official support.

Food banks: Some organisations offer asylum seekers help through food banks and baby banks.

These materials were developed in 2025 for the Prebunking at Scale project, with support from the European Fact-Checking Standards Network.