New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), released in July, show that around 1.26 million foreign nationals are claiming universal credit, a monthly payment meant to help working-age residents cover rent, childcare, and other basic costs. Once migrants gain residency or refugee status, they become eligible for the same benefits as UK citizens.
But that’s only part of the story. Data from the Labour Force Survey between April and June, also obtained by the Centre for Migration Control, found another 623,000 non-British citizens on other forms of support like disability payments, pensions, and housing benefits. That puts the number of foreign citizens receiving some form of welfare at about 1.9 million, and when counting naturalized citizens who were born abroad the total rises to 3.4 million.
Experts say the real figure could be even higher. The DWP admitted in a recent review that its Labour Force Survey has a “long-standing undercount” of welfare recipients, meaning the actual total may be underestimated.
According to Migration Watch UK, between March 2022 and March 2025, 24.79 billion pounds was paid out in universal credit to non-British or non-Irish households, roughly 10.1 billion pounds in the last year alone, or about one in every six pounds spent on the program.
Robert Bates of the Centre for Migration Control argued that Britain’s welfare system has become a “magnet” for people who should not be eligible in the first place.
“Those foreign nationals who arrive in Britain to work or study should not be able to access our welfare state,” Bates said. “It is unjust that at least 1.9 million individuals who are citizens of another country are being supported by the British taxpayer.”
