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Written question asked by James McMurdock (Independent (affiliation)) on Friday, 28 August 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. It was answered by Jo White (Labour) on Tuesday, 8 September 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Asylum: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026: Impact Assessment, published on 30 June 2026, what estimate has been made of the average lifetime fiscal impact of (a) a single asylum claimant, (b) an asylum claimant with a partner and (c) an asylum claimant with a partner and dependent children.

Answer

In the Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026: Impact Assessment, the costs and benefits associated with the Article 8 reforms have been quantified for the individuals directly impacted. Table 13 in Appendix A1 states that 81% of in-country family and private life visa grants were main applicants and 19% were dependants.

The Impact Assessment sets out a lifetime fiscal cost of -£141,000 per main applicant on the Family and Private Life route. In line with the Migration Advisory Committee’s methodology for estimating the lifetime fiscal impact of family partner visas, which did not account for the dependants of these main applicants, the equivalent lifetime fiscal cost of dependants has not been calculated, either for Article 8 or Asylum claimants.

The analysis produced by the Migration Advisory Committee can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-advisory-committee-annual-report-2025/migration-advisory-committee-mac-annual-report-2025-accessible#chapter-1-fiscal-analysis-of-the-family-visa

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
25710
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Asylum Dependants Finance Households
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk