Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
3 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBritain plans to revoke its legal duty to provide housing and financial support to asylum seekers who break the law, work illegally or can support themselves, making aid conditional in a Denmark-style overhaul set to take effect in June.
By Sam Tabahriti and Alistair Smout
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Britain will withdraw accommodation and financial support from asylum seekers who break the law, work illegally or can support themselves, under measures aimed at tightening the system amid rising pressure from Reform UK and internal Labour tensions.
The changes come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government comes under pressure in opinion polls from Nigel Farage's anti-immigration party, Reform UK.
The new measures by interior minister Shabana Mahmood draw on Denmark's approach and form part of a wider overhaul that includes closing asylum hotels, tightening removals and creating a one-stop appeals system.
The government would launch a pilot programme, Mahmood said, offering failed asylum seekers 10,000 pounds ($13,345.00) per family member - up to 40,000 pounds in total - to leave the country, or face forcible removal.
LEGAL DUTY TO SUPPORT REFUGEES TO BE SCRAPPED
Mahmood said Britain would scrap the legal duty to support refugees and halve the initial leave to remain for refugees to 2-1/2 years, in efforts to make the system conditional. It will also introduce an "emergency brake" on some study and work visas.
"Those who require it, and play by the rules, will rightly continue to receive asylum support, but those who do not will have their support removed," Mahmood said on Thursday.
"The generosity of the British people will become conditional on those seeking asylum to following the law, living by our rules and not working illegally."
CHARTING PATH BETWEEN THE GREENS AND REFORM
The Labour government is doubling down on a tougher approach on immigration as it faces dissent from the left of the party that it should change tack after losing a by-election to the left-wing Greens last week.
Mahmood warned against both Farage's plan to pull up the drawbridge on asylum seekers and limit legal migration, and the Green Party's "fairy-tale of open borders," saying Britain should have a fair but firm asylum system.
In response to the announcement, Reform said Labour were "taking the British people for mugs" and vowed to deport every illegal migrant. Green Party leader Zack Polanski said it would "always support fair and managed migration."
($1 = 0.7493 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Alistair Smout; editing by William James and Bernadette Baum)
Britain will replace its legal duty to provide support for asylum seekers with a conditional system that withdraws accommodation and financial aid from those who work illegally, break the law, or can support themselves.
Asylum seekers found working illegally, committing criminal offences, refusing removal, or able to support themselves could lose accommodation and financial support.
The new measures will take effect in June, pending parliamentary approval.
The UK interior ministry reported annual spending on asylum support at 4 billion pounds, with 107,003 people receiving support as of December.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and interior minister Shabana Mahmood are leading the introduction of the new asylum policy changes.
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