Two hundred sanctions daily fail to curb migrant benefit claims

DWP data records 198,771 sanctions against migrants on Universal Credit from January 2023 to April 2025. This equals 200 per day, or 14.6% of all 1,356,226 sanctions issued. Migrants nonetheless signed up at 472 daily last month, pushing foreign claimants to 1.3 million, up 6.7% yearly.

Universal Credit demands job searches, CV updates, and work coach meetings from out-of-work claimants. Sanctions cut payments, from missed appointments to three-month suspensions. Yet compliance fails at scale: April 2025 saw 7,752 migrant sanctions out of 50,655 total, 15%.

Costs compound the breach. Foreign households drew £24.79 billion in UC from March 2022 to March 2025, £10 billion last year alone. Taxpayers fund non-compliance amid a £342 billion total welfare bill.

Nationality splits reveal breadth. EEA nationals took 99,269 sanctions, non-EEA 73,134, unknown 26,368. Immigration statuses varied: 118,563 on EU Settlement Scheme, 29,182 refugees, 27,737 with Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Policy Gaps Persist

Governments pledge controls, but access endures. DWP notes a falling foreign claimant proportion since October 2024 and proposes a 10-year wait for most migrants. Indefinite Leave to Remain still unlocks benefits without work mandates.

This pattern spans parties. Pre-2024 Conservative rules allowed humanitarian and settlement routes to UC. Labour now inherits 1.3 million claimants without reversing inflows.

Sanctions signal intent, not enforcement. Nearly 500 daily sign-ups match or exceed sanctions. The system processes claims faster than it deters abuse.

Fiscal Strain Builds

Welfare absorbs 6% of GDP, with mental health and disability claims at 10.4 million working-age adults. Migrant UC adds pressure: £10 billion yearly rivals entire local authority budgets.

Productivity stalls as native inactivity rises. Youth unemployment compounds, payrolls drop 149,000 yearly. Foreign claims fill gaps without integration.

Taxpayers bear the load. Hard-working households see stagnant wages while funding repeated breaches. No party links migration volume to welfare capacity.

Institutions prioritize clearance over scrutiny. Backlogs cleared via paper promises echo asylum grants. DWP commitments exist on paper, ignored in practice.

Accountability evades leaders. Ministers announce waits, but existing routes persist. Officials rotate roles; failures carry no penalty.

This exposes migration-welfare disconnect. Governments admit inflows strain resources yet sustain access. Ordinary citizens face higher taxes, longer NHS waits, crumbling services.

Britain’s welfare state buckles under unintegrated claims. Two hundred daily sanctions expose the pretence of control, fueling fiscal rot across administrations. Decline accelerates as policy chases symptoms, not causes.