It was under Tony Blair’s Labour government that asylum seekers were denied access to the mainstream benefits system in 1999, and had their right to work severely restricted in 2002.
These measures were discriminatory and served to exclude asylum seekers from the wider community. They have contributed directly to the difficulties asylum seekers face today as without employment and the right to rent, asylum seekers are trapped in dangerous asylum hotels now being targeted by the far right.
Asylum seekers are now entirely dependent on the state, reliant on meagre Asylum Support payments that leave them living in poverty. Given that the average time taken to decide an asylum claim is still well over a year, the asylum system has become an incredibly expensive and degrading ordeal.
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS
With the current government unwilling to fix the housing crisis and house both asylum seekers and people with existing residency and/or citizenship rights in affordable community housing, the least that can be done is to give asylum seekers the right to work and rent on the private market, so that they can find housing in the community themselves.
5th December 2025