Nearly 1.5 Million Migrants on Benefits

Nearly 1.5 million migrants received Universal Credit last year, according to figures.

They accounted for nearly one in six – 15.6 per cent – of the total 9.6 million people who received Universal Credit at some point during the 12 months to December 2025.

It is the first time that the Department for Work and Pensions has provided such analysis, which was obtained under freedom of information rules by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC).

It will increase the pressure on Labour to stick by Shabana Mahmood’s plans to force migrants who came to the UK in the “Boriswave” to wait as long as 10 years for the right to settle, before they can claim benefits.

It is estimated that foreign care workers and their dependants who came to Britain in 2022 and 2023, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, will cost the state some £9.5bn in lifetime benefits and other public services if they are allowed to settle in the UK from this year.

Of the 1,497,774 on benefits, more than 200,000 were refugees or had been granted humanitarian protection. The majority had come through the European settlement scheme.

Migrants are currently entitled to claim benefits once they have been granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR), refugee status or humanitarian protection, although the Conservatives, Reform UK and Labour are considering or are already proposing to delaythis until they become UK citizens.

The 1.5 million claimants are some 200,000 more than the 1.3 million who were recorded as receiving universal credit at the end of 2025.

The new figures include migrants who might have claimed at some point during 2025 but then became employed, making them ineligible for the benefit.

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The data show that around 899,000 of the claimants in 2025 had been granted residency under the EU settlement scheme, 145,230 were refugees, 66,497 had humanitarian protection and 332,652 had ILR or limited ILR including family dependants brought to the UK.

A further 54,749 were described as “other”, while 31,195 had no immigration status recorded on digital systems.

The overall welfare bill is projected to rise from £313bn in 2024/25 to £373bn by the end of the decade, despite the growing hole in the public finances.

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