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The High Court has instructed the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to immediately increase the weekly support payments made to asylum seekers from £40.85 to £45. It is the largest ever single increase in the rate of asylum support and is said it will help with the cost of living during 2023.
The order given by the court requires Braverman to make an immediate increase in the asylum support rate by 10.1% on an interim basis.
A previous decision from 2022, to increase support payments using inflation data from September 2021, meant that payment rates did not take into account the impact of the cost of living on people seeking asylum living in the UK.
Kathleen Cosgrove of Greater Manchester Law Centre said: “The case has shown that the home secretary has, knowingly, and for months, broken the laws set by her own parliament and left 60,000 adults and children, residing lawfully in this country and who she has accepted a duty to support, with less than they need to meet essential living needs. It should not be controversial that, in the absence of any denial, justification, or even apology, the UK court has a constitutional obligation to speak. The government cannot ignore and is not above its own laws.”
Cosgrove has spoken about one mother who has been fighting to get the home secretary to hear about the reality of the lives of people who are seeking asylum in the UK.
Cosgrove said: “CB, a young mother of young children, has battled for nine months for the home secretary to listen to her evidence about the impossibility of meeting her families essential living needs. Throughout this time organisations working with asylum seekers have been calling for an urgent review of asylum support rates, and the home secretary’s own civil servants have been advising the minister in the strongest terms of the need for immediate action to avoid illegality.”
Cosgrove continued: “It shouldn’t take legal action, but without judicial review, what safeguards against a government that breaks its own laws?”
The judge determined that doing nothing was unlawful
High Court judge Mr Justice Fordham said: “In my judgment, the failure to consider this issue and make any decision was unlawful. In public law terms this, in my judgment, was an abdication of function – passivity was unlawful.”
The judge also considered the secretary of state’s failure to make a decision about an emergency uplift to asylum support rates during 2022 in response to rapidly increases in inflation.
By August 2022, civil servants working for the Home Office had relayed their concerns to the former home secretary, Priti Patel, which included the concern that the Home Office could breach its legal duty to ensure that asylum seekers are not left destitute because of inflation.
Advice given to the home secretary set out a number of options for addressing the inflation crisis and recommended a one-off payment of £96.24. However, the judge pointedly observed that the advice did not consider the possibility that Patel could potentially choose not to do anything. In September 2022 and November 2022, additional advice provided from Home Office civil servants were also ignored by Braverman who became Home Secretary in September 2022.
The judge concluded that the failure to make a decision for four months after receiving the advice from civil servants was unlawful.
The court then made a mandatory order requiring Braverman to uplift the asylum support rate to £45, in line with the most recent advice from civil servants. The secretary of state agreed to make the uplift immediately.
FreeMovement, an organisation that provides advice on immigration and asylum law, said:
“As always where a judgment is highly critical of the Home Office, it will be interesting to see if the secretary of state launches an appeal. If left unchallenged, the judgment in this case will make it difficult for the secretary of state to disagree with advice provided by her civil servants where she considers that a lower uplift in asylum support is appropriate.”
In 2022, the Scottish Refugee Council reported that people placed in hotels were receiving just £8.24 a week to cover transport, clothing, non-prescription medicine and other essentials such as supplies for children and babies.
A return bus ticket to attend a crucial Home Office appointment costs £4.90 in Glasgow – over half of this weekly allowance.
— Scottish Refugee Council 🧡 (@scotrefcouncil) October 6, 2022
Amid a cost of living crisis, rising inflation, the longest recession the UK has ever faced, people in our communities are struggling to buy the basics. In today’s climate, against a background of inflation, £8.24 wouldn’t buy a winter coat, a new pair of shoes, a week’s supply of flu medicine, nappies or baby food.
The right to work
It is illegal for asylum seekers to work under UK law, however the majority of the public support lifting the ban, to enable people seeking asylum the right to work. In March 2022, YouGov polling found that 81% of the public support the right to work for people seeking asylum in the UK.
