The British taxpayer is handing out a record £11.9 billion in direct welfare payments to households with at least one migrant, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions. Analysis of DWP figures by the Centre for Migration Control found that around one in six (15.6 per cent) of Universal Credit welfare payments went to households with at least one migrant.
This resulted in a record £11.9 billion ($15.9bn) in Universal Credit payments being directed to households with at least one migrant in 2025, according to the Daily Telegraph. This represented more than a 25 per cent increase from 2024, when £9.5 billion ($12.7bn) was spent on households with a migrant, and more than 58 per cent more than in 2023, when £7.5 billion ($10bn) was spent. The Universal Credit system coalesced multiple different welfare systems in 2013 into one monthly payment intended to subsidise unemployed people or those on low incomes. The data revealed that 65 per cent of payments, £7.7 billion ($10.3bn), went to unemployed claimants.
