Households containing at least one foreign national received a record £11.9bn in universal credit payments last year, according to Department for Work and Pensions figures, intensifying the political debate over Britain’s migration and welfare rules.
Payments to households with at least one foreign national rose by roughly a quarter from £9.5bn in 2024 to £11.9bn in 2025, according to the data. Analysis by the Centre for Migration Control found that such households accounted for about one in six universal credit claimants during the year.
Of the total, £7.7bn, or 65 per cent, was paid to unemployed claimants, according to the analysis.
Foreign nationals are eligible for universal credit where their immigration status provides recourse to public funds. This includes people with EU settled status and those holding indefinite leave to remain.
The figures come as Andy Burnham considers whether to support proposals from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to tighten the rules governing migrants’ path to permanent settlement.
Mahmood has proposed extending the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain from five to 10 years, rising to 15 years for foreign care workers.
The proposals have triggered opposition among Labour MPs. Around 100 MPs, including Angela Rayner, have called for care workers already in Britain to be excluded from the reforms, describing the proposed changes as “un-British” and “unfair”.
The debate has also sharpened scrutiny of the economic consequences of the UK’s post-Brexit migration system.
Chris Philip, the shadow home secretary, described the latest figures as “shocking”, saying: “Paying unemployed foreigners is an insult to hard-working taxpayers.”
He added: “If Shabana Mahmood U-turns on her own ILR reforms as looks increasingly likely, we will see even more low-wage and unemployed foreigners qualifying for benefits.”
Philip said the Conservatives would seek to prevent foreign nationals from claiming benefits, while excluding eligible EU citizens, and would require unemployed and low-wage foreign nationals to leave when their visas expire.
Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said the figures made a “mockery of the suggestion that mass legal migration has been a boon for Britain’s economy.”
He added: “it was ‘unconscionable that universal credit is being used to prop up the lifestyle of idle migrants. Whitehall must now give serious consideration to scrapping indefinite leave to remain and overhauling the naturalisation process.”
The government defended the existing system, stressing that benefit eligibility depends on legal immigration status.
A government spokesperson said: “Under this government, net migration is down by 82% from its 2023 peak.
“Only people who are in the UK legally can claim taxpayer-funded benefits, of which around half are in work.
“Last November, we set out proposals to reform settlement which will double the standard qualifying period to 10 years for most migrants, with shorter routes for those who contribute most to the UK.”
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