UK welfare spending for foreign national households rises to £11.92 billion

Recent data reveals a significant increase in welfare expenditure for households in Britain containing at least one foreign national. According to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures obtained via Freedom of Information, households with foreign nationals received £11.92 billion in Universal Credit payments in 2025. This represents a 25 per cent increase from the £9.5 billion paid in 2024 and a substantial rise from £7.5 billion in 2023.

Analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) indicates that nearly two million foreign nationals receive benefits or the state pension in the UK. This includes approximately 1.3 million non-British citizens receiving Universal Credit—including 745,000 Europeans—as well as 200,000 individuals claiming sickness benefits and roughly 400,000 receiving the state pension. Total support costs for these groups reached £23 billion last year and are projected to hit £27 billion by the end of the decade.

Of the 2025 Universal Credit expenditure, approximately £7.7 billion went to households where at least one foreign national was unemployed. The CSJ noted that these increases have coincided with high levels of immigration, noting that migrants become entitled to benefits once they achieve permanent settlement.