Labour's new policies for asylum seekers

The link below has her speech and I’ve quoted directly from it.

It’s the quote below. here

‘and over half of refugees remain on benefits 8 years after they have arrived.’

If it’s not true then surely a problem there.

I don’t know what the HS said.

I’ve taken these numbers from the gov.uk web site

Gov.uk says that in June 2025 1.5% of the 7.9M on UC were refugees

You have overlooked other groups - e.g. Afghan citizens and others on a bespoke/safe route are counted in the "Humanitarian" group, not the "Refugee" group, the 700 Albanian families receiving support were refused asylum so they would be counted in yet another group...

Also, how many former refugees are receiving Universal Credit - those people who now hold British Citizenship after five years, ten years..?

Over 83% of UC claimants are British and Irish born, same source.

You appear to have misquoted this statistic - it doesn't seem to tell us where claimants were born;

In the latest period, June 2025, 83.6% of people on UC were in the “CTA – UK, Ireland, Right of Abode” group. Of these, 99.8% are UK citizens.

When you say not at all I’m taking it as the HS is wrong.

Isn’t misleading the house a major issue?

Cheap reply. You’ve not convinced me you have a leg to stand on

Google it

Sources for your statements, please

Not at all. To summarise a calculation I made above:

Gov.uk says that in June 2025 1.5% of the 7.9M on UC were refugees. That is about 120,000 people. At that time, about 0.8% of the population or roughly 560,000 people were in the category of ‘refugees and asylum seekers’ - the latter ineligible for UC. I do not see a breakdown.

So in June something over 25% of refugees were claiming UC. As with other claimants there is no readily available breakdown saying how many are in work, etc.

That’s higher than the % of the general population on UC, of course. But I wonder how it compares to the rates on UC amongst those in the nil bands and basic rate tax bands?

I might be wrong, but I looked on the government website and it said that refugees can apply for universal credit as soon as their £10-a-week-and-hotel-accommodation ends as a result of a successful asylum application. They don't, it seems, have to wait 5 years.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-universal-credit-and-other-benefits-if-you-are-a-refugee/refugee-guide-urgent-things-you-need-to-do

No, the migrate for the healthcare, schools for their many children since immigrants have higher fertility rates, free public services for their extended families and elderly relatives who they bring over as they can. And they have not contributed anything in building any of this infrastructure. And paying tax on a below average wage or even an above average one for all of two minutes does not mean that you have contributed enough to take out all this stuff.

Thank you for bringing the link to my attention @Rhayader , but I'm not sure why you did so.

I didn’t listen to the HS but in that link it has ‘and over half of refugees remain on benefits 8 years after they have arrived.’

Is that correct in your view?

PS @HearMeOutt I have indeed just worked our the number claiming!

No. We can only work with hard data and reliable statistics. Those come from actual claims.

Moving the goal posts is not a good look

Your arithmetic is inaccurate though. You need to work out the number of asylum seekers eligible for UC, and the number claiming. Not just the total number of asylum seekers (many of whom are ineligible) and how many claim.

Edit: 68% may be wrong, but a majority

We have no idea what the answer will be.

This started because you said 68% are on benefits after 8 years. The arithmetic suggests otherwise

But many of those asylum seekers won’t be eligible for UC as they haven’t stayed the minimum of 5 years. Now do the sums again?

To continue, @HearMeOutt , let’s crunch the numbers, because we can roughly calculate the percentage of refugees on UC easily.

Gov.uk tells us that 1.5% of claimants are refugees as of June 2025 and also tells us that there were 7.9M claiming UC then.

1.5% of 7.9M is 150,100.

Gov.uk also tells us that about 0.8% of the population is refugees and asylum seekers - the latter cannot claim UC. That is about
558,000 people.

So as of June 2025 something over 25% of refugees were on UC. That is a far cry from the claimed statistics.

I gave the proportion of UC claimants who are refugees, 1.5%. Refugees have successfully claimed asylum.

People in the process of claiming are only entitled to the minimal payments I and others have mentioned above: £49.xx per week if you are not provided food and £9.95 per week if you are provided so called food. People in the process of seeking asylum cannot claim UC.

You’re confusing the proportion of asylum seekers on benefits with the proportion of claimants as a whole that are asylum seekers.

If somebody is more likely to languish on benefits long term than work, why should we let them live here?

Sick of seeing those annoying mopeds with L plates on everywhere driving dangerously adding no value

It’s waived in so many scenarios.

https://righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit/no-recourse-to-public-funds-nrpf/#changeofconditions

@Papyrophile

:)

It’s clear from what I’ve said that we’re lucky enough to be comfortable (now) but we aren’t UHNW or anything (nor do we feel we’re missing out). I daresay Uncle Sam can do better

Growing up I saw people’s lives change in an instant and that will never leave me

My mistake @poetryandwine. I'm sure Uncle Sam will manage without!