What support do asylum seekers get in the UK?

Can asylum seekers claim benefits? Why are some housed in hotels? Do they get free treatment on the NHS? And what about free iPhones?

Some of the most common claims we see about immigration relate to what asylum seekers do—or don’t—get when they come to the UK.

This explainer tackles these claims and other frequently asked questions about the support available to asylum seekers (people who currently have a pending asylum application) and in some cases failed asylum seekers (those who have had their asylum application rejected but have yet to leave the UK).

It does not look at people who have had an asylum application accepted (refugees or people with other grants of protection), as people in this group have been given the right to live in the UK and so are entitled to different support from the government.

The information on this page is accurate as of October 2025, and generally applies UK-wide unless otherwise stated. If you have any other questions you think we should look into, please let us know.

At a glance...

1. Can asylum seekers claim benefits?
2. How much money do asylum seekers get?
3. Why are asylum seekers often housed in hotels?
4. Is the NHS free for asylum seekers?
5. Do asylum seekers get free prescriptions?
6. Do asylum seekers get taxis to health appointments?
7. Do asylum seekers get free education?
8. Do asylum seekers get free iPhones?
9. Do asylum seekers get other things for free, such as bus passes?

Asylum seekers (and failed asylum seekers) are not able to claim mainstream benefits like Universal Credit while their asylum claims are being considered.

However asylum seekers who are homeless or don’t have money to buy food can apply for asylum support from the government, which includes some financial assistance to help them buy food and other essentials, and, for those who need it, assistance with housing.

We don’t know exactly what proportion of asylum seekers and failed asylum seekers claim asylum support, but as of 30 June 2025 the number in receipt of asylum support stood at 106,075, the vast majority of whom received both housing and financial support.

Asylum seekers usually get £49.18 per week for each person in their household, loaded onto an ASPEN card (a kind of debit card that can be used to take out cash). But asylum seekers who are housed in accommodation where meals are provided, for example in hotels, receive less money (£9.95 per week for each person in their household).

Asylum seekers who are pregnant or mothers of children under three are entitled to additional payments of between £5.25 and £9.50 per week, while some expectant or new mothers can also receive a one-off maternity grant of £300.

This support may also be available to failed asylum seekers under some conditions—this is usually dependent on them making efforts to leave the UK.

The government is required by law to provide accommodation for asylum seekers who have nowhere to live. To receive this, asylum seekers must apply for asylum support.

Historically, asylum seekers have been housed in hostel-style accommodation while their application for asylum support is being considered, before moving into self-contained private dwellings like flats and houses if their application is approved.

But because both the number of asylum seekers and the backlog of applications awaiting a decision have increased significantly in recent years, the government has had to find alternative places for asylum seekers to live (known as contingency accommodation). This has primarily been hotels, but some asylum seekers have been housed in other types of contingency accommodation, including the Bibby Stockholm barge and in former military barracks.

Asylum seekers who are eligible to be provided with accommodation do not as a rule get to choose where they live, though there are some limited exceptions to this.

Yes—asylum seekers get free access to NHS care. Any asylum seeker with an active application or appeal is entitled to use primary care services like GPs, and secondary care services such as hospitals, A&Es and maternity services.

The situation for failed asylum seekers is more complicated, however, and varies in different parts of the UK. In England, failed asylum seekers can still access primary care services, but secondary care is only available to those who are still supported by the Home Office or a local authority, or under Part 1 (care and support) of the Care Act 2014

Any asylum seeker who has been refused, regardless of their right to appeal, can proceed free of charge with any treatment that was already underway before their application was refused.

Doctors in England must also treat refused asylum seekers immediately if care is urgent, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, although they may be charged later.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, asylum seekers are still entitled to free secondary health care even if their claim has been refused.

This depends on where in the UK they are and whether they are in receipt of asylum support.

The NHS Business Services Authority says that if a person receives asylum support from UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) because they are currently destitute or at risk of becoming destitute, they will receive an HC2 certificate, which entitles them to free NHS prescriptions, free NHS dental treatment, and free NHS sight tests, among other benefits.

Asylum seekers who don’t get asylum support may still be eligible for free prescriptions via other routes—for example due to their age or because they are pregnant, or because they qualify under the NHS Low Income Scheme.

Prescriptions are free for everyone in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and free in Wales for anyone registered with a GP.

There have been recent reports of the government covering high travel costs for asylum seekers taking taxis to health appointments. Last month the BBC reported that one asylum seeker was told a 250-mile round trip in a taxi to see a consultant who had treated him at his old address cost £600.

The Home Office has since announced a review into the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers to appointments.

According to a 2023 Home Office review, some £4.96 of the weekly asylum support allowance is to cover travel, and it was calculated that this would typically cover the cost of two single bus journeys or a return journey.

Beyond this, Home Office guidance also states that an asylum seeker can apply to have their travel costs to a healthcare appointment covered by the government. In that case, the guidelines state that “the accommodation provider can be authorised to arrange and fund the travel”. This isn’t necessarily only by taxi—it can be “by bus, another form of public transport, or by taxi”.

The Home Office told us that the rates for transport are calculated per person per mile, and aren’t based on a given vehicle’s “meter measurement”, like a taxi meter. There’s no publicly available data on how many taxis are booked or how much money the government has spent on them.

Children of asylum seekers, or unaccompanied asylum seeking children, must attend school if they are aged between 5 and 17. This is free, as it is for all children in the UK attending state school.

Asylum seekers can apply to go to university in the UK, unless their immigration bail certificate has a ‘no study’ condition (which government guidance says should typically not be the case for asylum seekers). They are typically not able to apply for student loans in the same way as other students, but some universities may offer scholarships to asylum seekers to reduce their fees. This may change if an asylum seeker is granted refugee status during their studies.

The government does not routinely provide asylum seekers with free iPhones or mobile phones of any kind.

Around 14,000 mobile phones were reportedly given to asylum seekers during the pandemic as a temporary measure while face-to-face interviews were suspended. It was also reported earlier this year that some mobile phones which aren’t smartphones have been given out to allow “ongoing contact with the Home Office”, but the government has said this is rare and “not a regular practice”.

However some asylum seekers do receive phones which have been donated, for example by charities such as Migrant Help. These aren’t paid for by the government, and the phones issued appear to be typically second-hand, but it’s possible that some asylum seekers could end up being given an iPhone via this route.

We’ve written about this in more detail here, in a fact check of a related claim circulating on social media.

Depending on where asylum seekers are living in the country, they may have access to other services, but this will vary by area and is often funded locally or by charities.

For example, we’ve previously written about a six-month pilot scheme in Northern Ireland where asylum seekers were given travel cards for free public transport, and a similar scheme in Oxford offering free bus passes.

While these things may be available to asylum seekers in some parts of the country, they are not universally provided to all asylum seekers in the UK. And in some cases local schemes which have attracted media attention, such as free driving lessons offered in Kent, are actually for people who have had an asylum application accepted, rather than asylum seekers with pending applications.

There doesn’t appear to be any centralised list of free provisions offered to asylum seekers by various local authorities, though some information has been obtained and published through Freedom of Information requests.

So we can’t say with any certainty what programmes may have been funded by taxpayers and how many asylum seekers may have been able to access them. What we can say is that claims that all asylum seekers are entitled to additional things like free driving lessons UK-wide as a matter of course are not correct.

Many thanks to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory for their help with this article.