"Asylum Seekers" Cost British Taxpayers £15 Million a Day
Table at sec 1.3, page 5, in House of Commons Library report, "Estimates Day debate: The spending of the Home Office on asylum and migration" released on 11 March 2024, which details the spending of £5.42 billion, at line F.
On Thursday 26 September 2024, the Daily Express ran an article online entitled "Shock as Cost of Housing Asylum Seekers in Britain Soars to £5.42bn a Year". (1)
The article went on to say that the annual cost of "asylum support, resettlement and accommodation" was £5.42billion in the 2023/24 financial year.
Although the Express did not link to the Report, we've tracked it down.
It is "Estimates Day debate: The spending of the Home Office on asylum and migration" released on 11 March 2024. (2) and it can be downloaded as a PDF here (opens in new page):
Above is the critical Table, at sec 1.3, page 5.
Note the figures in the Table are in billions, not millions, and so 3 zeros have to be added to the printed figures!
Definitions: Regarding the figures, the Report tells us that the "Resource" Departmental Expenditure Limit ('Resource DEL') "incorporates the day-to-day running costs for front line services", while the "Capital" Departmental Expenditure Limit ('Capital DEL') "encompasses the investment in the Home Office's infrastructure enabling it to deliver its core activities and includes equipment and IT." (p3)
£15 MILLION a DAY to INDULGE THESE PEOPLE
The total amount to be spent in financial year 2023/24 is listed in the Table under line "F".
F Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation.
Resource 5,422,254. Capital 131,860. Total 5,554,114.
That's where the Express took its 5.42bn figure from, although the Report rounds the total figure up and goes on to say:
Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation (ASRA) expenditure is £5.6 billion. This represents over one quarter (26%) of total expenditure (Total DEL).
Let's just take the lower figure, which when written out in full, is £5,422,254,000.
Divided by 365 days, that is almost £15 million a day (£14,855,490)! It's over £15 million if we take the Total figure.
Divided by 12 months, that is almost £452 million a month (£451,854,500)!
Quite frankly, these figures are unacceptable, because we're told "there's no money" for pensioners, and there's no money for this and that! Aye right!
THIS is 5 TIMES the COST of BORDER FORCE ALONE
The point of posting this upsetting information is to prove that our government has no qualms about spending billions on these people instead of:
a) spending on British people, and;
b) funding an effective programme to stop these people crossing the Channel in the first place, which would actually cost much, much less!
For example, going back to the Table at sec 1.3, we see that the Resource budget spent on Border Force – the arm intended to enforce the law and secure the border – is almost one fifth of the amount spent on "asylum support, resettlement and accommodation", coming in at only £1,104,595,000.
In the Express article, it quoted a Government spokesman saying: "[We] have taken immediate action to start clearing the asylum backlog to reduce the use of expensive hotels."
Unfortunately, this is code for granting them "refugee status" and resettling them in "the community".
WE COULD be HEADING to £32 MILLION a DAY in 2 YEARS TIME!
Ominously, the Report states that if things continue as at present:
Projected 11 billion cost
As mentioned above, ministers have been citing a projected asylum accommodation cost of £11 billion per year by 2026. This may reflect mid-2023 impact assessment analysis that assumes the per-night cost of accommodation and the number of people receiving asylum support continues to rise on the same trend as from April 2020 to May 2023. If that were to happen, the cost per person per night would reach £178 and the supported population 185,000. This would work out at £32 million per day, which is the equivalent of £11.7 billion per year. (p15)
It is essential for us to highlight this and to urge our politicians to stop the boats and send them back, and to ensure no "resettlement" of these people in our country.
It is essential that we do not vote for any politicians who refuse to grasp this nettle, as per our message at the "Enough is Enough" rally in George Square, Glasgow on 7-9-24 (see video below).
We will have plenty of chances to use our vote at the English Council Elections in 2025; the Scottish and Welsh Elections in 2026; and the Scottish and Welsh Council Elections and the Northern Irish Election in 2027.
Otherwise, things are going to get worse and worse!
SOURCES
1. Jon Austin, "Shock as Cost of Housing Asylum Seekers in Britain Soars to £5.42bn a Year", Daily Express, online 26-9-24 here.
2. "Estimates Day debate: The spending of the Home Office on asylum and migration", 11 March 2024, Number CDP 2024/0054, House of Commons Library.
For more articles on this subject see our Territorial Sovereignty: Article Index
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