Stop financial and other support for asylum seekers
The Parliament petitions site records 427,447 signatures for this petition, which closed on 20 July 2025. The Government responded on 23 June 2025. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 20 October 2025.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Stop financial and other support for asylum seekers
This petition is to advocate a cessation of financial and other support provided to asylum seekers by the Government. This support currently includes shelter, food, medical care (including optical and dental), and cash support.
I believe that such provisions may inadvertently incentivise illegal migration, particularly via the English Channel.
This petition is to urge the Government to discontinue these support measures and payments.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 23 June 2025; the petitions site lists the Home Office as responsible. Its summary:
We are determined to tackle illegal migration and end the use of asylum hotels but in the meantime there is a legal requirement to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be living on the streets.
The opening 362 words of the 860-word response:
We are grateful to everyone who took the time to sign this petition. In response, we will first explain the background to the current situation, and then set out what the Government is doing about it.
Background:
Since the 1950s, the UK has been legally obliged under the Refugee Convention to properly consider the claims of asylum-seekers arriving in our country. There is also a long-standing legal requirement to provide support to those asylum-seekers who would otherwise be left destitute on our streets.
Applicants for support must provide details of their income and assets, so an assessment can be made of their risk of destitution. If they provide misleading information, break the rules of their accommodation, or do anything else to breach the conditions of their support, it can be suspended or withdrawn.
When this Government came to office last July, it inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with tens of thousands of cases waiting to be considered, and asylum hotels being used across the country to house the asylum-seekers caught in that backlog. At their peak in autumn 2023, they had 400 hotels in use, at a cost of almost £9 million per day.
Our Plan for Change:
As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, we are restoring order to the asylum system by clearing the backlog, ending the use of hotels, and increasing the removal of individuals with no right to be in the UK.
First, on clearing the asylum backlog, we have significantly increased the numbers of cases being processed each month. In the last full quarter, from January to March 2025, the second highest number of initial decisions was taken since records began in 2002, more than double the number taken in the three months before the election.
Second, on the use of asylum hotels, we will reach the point this summer where the number of hotels in use will have halved from its peak under the last government, and our commitment remains to end their use entirely by the end of this Parliament. As a result of the action we have taken already, £500 million has been cut from the annual cost of asylum hotels.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies. Measured against each constituency's electorate at the 2024 general election, the most came from Tamworth, with 16.3 signatures per 1,000 electors (1,221 in all).
424,535 of the signatures were from the UK and 2,912 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures | Electorate, July 2024 | Per 1,000 electors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tamworth | 1,221 | 75,055 | 16.3 |
| Redcar | 1,122 | 70,241 | 16.0 |
| Blackpool North and Fleetwood | 1,137 | 73,339 | 15.5 |
| Clacton | 1,207 | 78,245 | 15.4 |
| Castle Point | 1,065 | 71,026 | 15.0 |
| Hartlepool | 1,073 | 71,437 | 15.0 |
| North Warwickshire and Bedworth | 1,045 | 69,752 | 15.0 |
| Liverpool Walton | 1,018 | 69,317 | 14.7 |
| Boston and Skegness | 1,085 | 75,811 | 14.3 |
| Carlisle | 1,106 | 77,863 | 14.2 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| South East | 59,453 |
| North West | 58,897 |
| East of England | 43,963 |
| West Midlands | 41,089 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 39,205 |
| South West | 36,904 |
| East Midlands | 34,158 |
| Scotland | 25,984 |
| London | 25,229 |
| North East | 24,740 |
| Wales | 23,506 |
| Northern Ireland | 8,602 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 20 October 2025. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/705383.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
d5723929137bca1d… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.