Asylum Seekers In Lancashire Costs The Taxpayer More Than Lancashire County Council's Total Debt

How Many Asylum Seekers Are In Lancashire?

According to 2021 Census data, Lancashire is home to 37,277 ‘resettlers’, people who have come here as refugees or asylum seekers.

According to Lancashire County Council, as of 2023 there were also an additional 6,000 asylum seekers & refugees in Lancashire requiring ‘active support’ through a Government migration scheme.

LCC said this figure has increased by 200% since 2021. A 200% increase from 2021 to 2023 (6,000) means the 2021 figure was 2,000.

LCC also said forecasting predicted the number will continue to grow. A continued 200% increase from the 2023 figure to 2025 means that the present figure would be around 18,000.

If, as LCC’s figures suggest, since 2021, there have been an additional 2,000 (2021) + 6,000 (2023) + 18,000 (2025 estimate) asylum seekers, this equals 26,000, so we’ll use this as an estimated figure.

How Much Does This Cost?

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) reported in 2024 that per asylum seeker costs of just procuring short-term accommodation were £41,000 in 2023-24.

This has seen a huge rise since their reported per asylum seeker cost in 2019-20, which stood at £17,000.

Asylum seekers in self-catering accommodation also receive £49.18 per week in benefits, which is £2,557.36 per year.

There’s also the costs of administration, education, healthcare, translation and any other public service which an asylum seeker may use, or cause the state to spend money, such as the fire brigade, or the police.

If we calculate these 37,277 ‘resettler’ Lancashire population in the 2021 Census based on the 2019-20 £17,000 per asylum seeker cost, then the cost was 37,277 X £17,000 = £633,709,000 (£633.7 million).

If we calculate the estimated 26,000 Lancashire asylum seekers from 2021-2025, and use the £41,000 2023-24 figure, the cost is £1,066,000,000 (£1.066 billion, or 1 billion and 66 million pounds.

This equals a grand total of £1,699,709,000, or 1 billion, 699 million and 709 thousand pounds.

That’s just for accommodation, if all the estimated 26,000 asylum seekers since 2021 all received the £49.18 per week in benefits, that’s another £66.49136m per year.

In 2021, total healthcare expenditure per person in the UK was £4,188. That’s another £265m+ per year (for the 37,277 resettlers up to 2021, then the estimated 26,000 since then).

LCC’s refugee support team, as of 2023, had 29 staff. At the average salary of £37,000 per year, this is over £1m per year.

It is clear based just on these crude estimates that the likely cost is well in excess of £2 billion, and likely to be much more. Lancashire County Council’s total debt is over £1 billion.

Will It Be Recouped In Tax?

In 2023/24, public spending per person in the UK was £12,958.

The median annual salary for full-time work in Lancashire, as of April 2024, is £30,262.

As of this tax year, that will result in £3,538.40 of income tax and £1,415.36 of National Insurance. The average (band D) Council Tax payment in Lancashire in 24/25 was £1,653.29.

This leaves £23,654.95 for this average person to spend. If the entirety is spent on things which incur 20% rate of VAT, then £4,730.99 will be paid in VAT. However, this is crude as not all spending is subject to VAT, but as other items incur extra taxes, it’s a good average.

This gives a total of £11,338.04 in tax paid for this average person.

So, if an asylum seeker ends up earning the average wage in Lancashire, pays their taxes and spends all their money in the UK, there’s a £1,619.96 annual deficit.

This means an asylum seeker has to earn considerably more than the average salary in Lancashire in order for the state to break even for the public spending they incur annually once settled and contibute enough to. 

In many cases, they add valuable skilled labour, such as Doctors, but in many more cases, they don’t, it costs the taxpayer a lot of money and the well runneth dry, because the country is in huge debt and isn’t making ends meet already, public services are broken and our children and grandchildren will pick up the cost of our frivolous spending.

What You Can Do

Vote Reform UK.

Now, more than ever, we need Reform UK County Councillors at County Hall, to reduce the cost burden of immigration on the people of Lancashire.

County Councillors alone can only put a plaster over a bullet wound and lower the costs and attractiveness of coming to Lancashire for refugees, but it’s a start, and it’ll be much more than the Conservative-led County Council have done so far.

Voting Reform UK nationally and getting MP’s in Parliament in the next General Election will enable the nation to end this level of mitigation, which not only costs us a fortune, but puts strain on our communities and services.

For me it’s not about blaming a particular group within society for all our problems, this is just one of many problems. Simply put, we can’t afford to keep doing this. We owe more to our children and elderly than we do foreign refugees, many of whom are economic migrants.