What was claimed
A skilled migrant will contribute on average £16,000 a year towards our economy, whereas a British skilled worker contributes £800 a year.
Our verdict
This isn’t what Migration Advisory Committee data shows. A study found that in 2022/23 a migrant skilled worker made an average net fiscal contribution of £16,300, higher than the £14,400 of a UK-born working adult. But the £800 figure refers to the net contribution of an average UK-born person (including non-workers), not a “British skilled worker”.
“A skilled migrant will contribute on average £16,000 a year towards our economy, and that’s when you include the public services he or she may use. By the way, compare that to a Brit skilled worker, that’s £800 minus the public services they use.
“And here’s the lovely stat [...] A skilled migrant’s family will contribute to the British economy £12,000 a year [...] A British skilled worker’s family takes from the economy £4,400.”
During an appearance on LBC last month, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan made a series of comparisons between the economic contributions made by migrant skilled workers and British skilled workers.
He claimed that “a skilled migrant will contribute on average £16,000 a year towards our economy”, compared to a “Brit skilled worker” contribution of £800, and that a “skilled migrant’s family will contribute to the British economy £12,000 a year”, compared to a British skilled worker’s family, which he claimed “takes from the economy £4,400”.
Mr Khan wasn’t explicit about the source of these figures—we’ve asked his office about the comments he made and not had a response.
But immediately before mentioning the figures Mr Khan referred to the government’s Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body that advises the government. His figures appear to be taken from the committee’s December 2024 report, which estimated the fiscal impact of migrants holding a Skilled Worker visa in 2022/23 who had entered the country that year.
The report estimated that the average migrant skilled worker had a positive net fiscal impact of £16,300—meaning that they contributed £16,300 more to government revenues (through taxes etc) than they cost the government (through things like welfare, health and education).
But Mr Khan’s claim that a “Brit skilled worker” makes a net contribution of £800 isn’t correct based on this data. The £800 figure appears to refer to the net contribution of an average UK-born adult—a category which includes not just “skilled workers” but also other working adults, as well as those who may be unemployed, economically inactive or retired. It’s therefore not a like-for-like comparison.
The report also assessed the contributions of a UK-born working adult, which it describes as a “a more ‘like for like’ comparison”, though this category would also include workers who might not be classified as “skilled”. It estimated that the average UK-born working adult had a net positive contribution of £14,400—much closer to the average migrant skilled worker, though still less.
Similarly, while the report did estimate that a migrant skilled worker’s household had a net fiscal contribution of £12,000, the figure of a net contribution of -£4,400 Mr Khan claimed was for a “British skilled worker’s family” actually refers to the net contribution of an average UK household (which the Migration Advisory Committee has told Full Fact includes working and non-working households). The report did not provide an equivalent estimate specifically for UK working households, or for the households of UK-born skilled workers.
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It’s worth noting that the figures in the report were estimates of the net contributions made by an average person or household in these groups in a specific year (2022/23). They did not estimate the average annual net contribution over a longer period, or over a person’s lifetime.
The report said that there are various reasons why the net contribution of a migrant skilled worker may be higher, including the fact that the Skilled Worker visa is “designed to attract migrants who are in full-time employment with generally high earnings” (most Skilled Worker visa applicants must have an annual salary of at least £38,700), that in their initial years in the UK migrants on these visas are typically not entitled to public support (like benefits), and that migrant skilled workers are typically aged between 20 and 69 and so may be assumed to use health services less than the average UK adult.
As a result, it said, “it is likely we are estimating at a stage when [migrant skilled workers] are making some of their most positive net contributions to UK government finances over their time in the UK”.
A number of other studies have estimated the fiscal impact of migrants over a longer period, producing varying figures. However, the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory says there is “no single ‘correct’ estimate of migrants’ fiscal impact”, as “different studies make different assumptions, and not everyone will agree on what the best assumptions to make are”.
If a politician makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.