Asylum Seekers Must Repay £10,000 Once They Earn

Asylum seekers will be required to pay back £10,000 of what the taxpayer spends on supporting them, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will announce on Tuesday.

Once they have a job, the money can be taken out of their pay cheques in monthly instalments, just like a student loan.

However, because the payments would be means-tested, there are still significant questions about how much money the Home Office can recover.

Those who successfully claim they cannot afford to repay the money will be excused from the scheme.

The £10,000 sum – a flat-rate charge levied on all adult asylum seekers – will partially compensate the taxpayer for the cost of keeping asylum seekers in hotels or self-catering accommodation while their claims are decided.

Last year £4 billion was spent on asylum support in the UK.

The Home Office has said it costs an average of £158,000 a year to support a family of asylum seekers.

Ms Mahmood said: ‘The cost of asylum accommodation on the British taxpayer is too high.

‘We have already reduced asylum costs by £1 billion, but it is also right that we ask those who can contribute to do so.

‘Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility.

‘Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.’

The new Immigration and Asylum Bill, which is scheduled to be submitted in Parliament, will include the additional measures.

The Home Office said the ‘primary mechanism’ for the repayments would be direct deductions from wages, but it could also be done through the tax and benefits systems.

Before being granted permission to reside permanently in Britain, immigrants must settle the entire debt.

Anyone who leaves the country will be required to be making their repayments in order to return.

It is unclear how the policy will deal with asylum seekers who secretly end up working undeclared, cash-in-hand jobs.

Additionally, it’s unclear if it will motivate more asylum applicants to stay unemployed.

Only a quarter of 16-to 64-year-olds given asylum between 2015 and 2023 were in employment within a year, with the proportion rising to half by two years after being granted refugee status.

Asylum hotels currently cost the taxpayer an average of £144 per person per night, and self-catering asylum accommodation costs just over £23 a night.

Claimants in self-catering accommodation receive £49.18 a £ 49.18-a-week allowance, while those on full board get £9.95 a week.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘It is flattering that Labour have adopted yet another policy put forward by the Conservative Party.

‘This precise scheme was proposed by us in an amendment to the Immigration Bill last year, which Labour blocked.’

He added: ‘Labour are failing to remove illegal immigrants and have wasted two years in government tinkering around the edges.

‘The Conservatives have set out clear and deliverable policies which we encourage Labour to copy in order to completely end illegal immigration.

‘We would leave the European Convention on Human Rights and modern slavery treaties that are restricting deportations and would allow for all illegal immigrants to be deported – meaning we then won’t need to worry about who pays for accommodating them.’

Wouldn’t it have been more feasible to not house them in the first place?

And the government’s strategy would only work if they were to find work, so that their earnings could be declared. But they didn’t come here to work; they came here to take. Some might work, but most of them will never contribute.

Of course, this is all smoke and mirrors yet again in an endeavour to deceive the public. It will presumably never happen, and this is why our government are constantly insulting our intelligence.

But from someone with a wee bit of intelligence. Just stop them coming, and stop giving billions in aid to non-British citizens. It’s about time we started taking care of our own citizens. It’s quite simple really, and this makes good sense, something our present government appears to have very little of.

If these migrants can afford to pay thousands to cross the Channel, then they have enough money to sustain themselves, and if they don’t, then remain where you are.

Of course they won’t pay; which goonhead thought this idea up? Yet another brainwave that will never happen – they should not be here in the first place. The clue is in the word ILLEGAL!