Are asylum seekers ever entitled to benefits or social housing?
No asylum seeker who arrived in the UK after April 1st 2000 can be allocated social housing or paid any state benefit. The only asylum seekers who are entitled to mainstream benefits are those who made a claim for asylum at the port of entry before that date. There are very few asylum seekers to whom this still applies, but they are entitled to most welfare benefits, including housing benefit, and there are minimal homelessness duties applying to local authorities. They are not however eligible for local authority housing registers, and all these entitlements end as soon as they receive a first negative asylum decision, at which point they go into the UKBA system pending any appeal as “disbenefited” cases.
