Migrant households claim record £12 billion in UK universal credit, sparking political backlash

Freedom-of-information requests to the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that households containing a foreign national received a record £11.9 billion in universal credit during 2025, a 25 % increase on 2024 and about 15.6 % of total payments. Of that amount, roughly £7.7 billion went to claimants who were not in work, while the remainder involved families with EU-settled status members. The data have fueled criticism of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s planned asylum reforms, which would extend the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain and impose longer waits on foreign care workers.

Opposition figures including Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick have called the spending an insult to taxpayers. The Centre for Migration Control’s research director Robert Bates described the situation as a fiscal disaster, while a government spokesperson highlighted that net migration has fallen sharply and only legally resident migrants can claim benefits.