Resource

Cheikh is a survivor of torture and sexual abuse and lives with severe physical health problems caused by the ill-treatment he suffered in Senegal, greatly limiting his mobility. He walks with the aid of two crutches and is on the waiting list for an urgent hip replacement. This has been delayed by multiple other health conditions which need to be monitored. He needs to attend numerous appointments including scans, physiotherapy and blood tests. Cheikh is waiting for a decision in his asylum claim and while waiting is forbidden from working (even if his health allowed it) so he is entirely reliant on accommodation and financial support from the Home Office. He is housed in an asylum hotel and given just £9.95 a week to live on. He often cannot afford to pay for public transport and has to walk 30 minutes to the hospital. He must risk further damage to his body by increasing the strain just to get to his medical appointments – or indeed, not attend at all and miss out on vital medical attention. He applied for a Disabled Person’s Freedom Pass but his application was refused. 

Year after year, the Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) has provided detailed evidence to the Home Office explaining why the meagre financial support given to people seeking asylum, like Cheikh, is woefully inadequate to meet their basic needs. They are forced to live in poverty, which has a terrible impact on their mental health and impedes their recovery from trauma, torture and abuse. But every year, the asylum rates remain low and, if changed at all, they are increased by insignificant amounts. Following the Home Office’s review of asylum support rates last year, we were dismayed to see in May 2025 that the rate of financial support for those living in self-catered accommodation was not increased and the rate for those living in full board (catered) accommodation was increased by just 16p per day, to £9.95 per week.

The Home Office sets the rate of asylum support according to its own assessment of what it considers is necessary to cover ‘essential living needs’, based on Office of National Statistics (ONS) data and market research. As a result, asylum support payments are substantially lower than mainstream benefit payments – for a single person aged over 25, asylum support is just over half (53%) of the amount of Universal Credit they would receive.

One of the consequences of such low support rates is that people seeking asylum struggle to travel. The Home Office currently allocates £6 a week to travel, arguing that this is sufficient to cover the cost of “at least one return bus fare a week”. It is unclear why the Home Office assumes that people seeking asylum only need to make one return journey a week – but the government believes that “travel isn’t an essential living need within itself” and just “may be necessary in limited circumstances in order to meet other needs relating to maintaining interpersonal relationships and a minimum level of participation in social, cultural and religious life”. We fundamentally disagree. For any individual, whether seeking asylum or not, regular travel is vital to ensuring they can fulfil key essential needs, including access to adequate food, healthcare and education. Those with a mental or physical disability are likely to need to take a bus to travel just a short distance (e.g. to their GP surgery or to a larger shop to buy food). Yet in Greater London to do this just once a week costs £3.50 in total, leaving only £2.50 for the rest of the week’s travel allowance. This amount only covers a single additional bus journey.

The Home Office also argues that asylum support rates “are calculated for the average able bodied adult asylum seeker” and that where individuals can show they have exceptional needs they can apply for additional funds. This is simply not the case. We have written extensively about the barriers facing people seeking asylum in applying for discounted or subsidised travel. Current schemes, either from statutory bodies such as the Home Office or contracted partners such as Transport for London (TfL) are inaccessible to those seeking protection in the UK for a variety of reasons. The Home Office, for example, continues to say that people who are required to report to them regularly can have their travel costs paid but in reality  people do not automatically receive tickets and end up having to use their weekly subsistence payment. TfL offers a number of important concessions to support low-income individuals but unfortunately the majority of these are not accessible to people in the process of seeking protection. None of the existing concessions applies universally to those seeking asylum and so the existence of these concessions, whether amended or not, does not resolve the clear and urgent need for a broader provision of free bus travel. 

As the government continues to leave people seeking asylum in poverty, others have stepped in to help.  This month saw the start of the Scottish government’s scheme offering free bus travel to those seeking asylum in Scotland via a National Entitlement Card (NEC) - available until 31 March 2026 or until funding runs out. Pilot schemes offering free travel have been offered in Oxford, Wales and in Northern Ireland. The evaluation of the scheme in Northern Ireland found that between 97% and 99% of participants found that free travel helped their mental health and well-being, made it easier to travel to services and appointments and helped them feel part of the community. It also opened up new opportunities to volunteer, gain new skills, and contribute to society.

We now need to see the same offer in London. By providing people seeking asylum with free bus travel, Transport for London could ensure that those living in London are able to access the support and services they need, whilst also better integrating in their communities. Not only would general wellbeing be improved, reducing pressure on statutory health services in London, but free travel would give people seeking asylum a level of independence and dignity that they are too often denied.

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