Asylum: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2025 to Question 71964 on Asylum: Finance, what criteria qualifies a person for (a) Section 4 and (b) Section 95 Asylum Support.
Answered by Alex Norris
Asylum seekers and their dependents who would otherwise be destitute can obtain support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The destitution threshold is the minimum an individual needs to enable them to obtain adequate accommodation and meet other essential needs. The guidance used to assess and calculate destitution for those applying for support is set out at: Assessing destitution: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK
To be eligible for support under section 4, a person must be a failed or inadmissible asylum seeker or the dependant of a failed or inadmissible asylum seeker, appear to the Secretary of State to be destitute, and meet at least one of the five conditions set out in Regulation 3(2) of the Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Accommodation to Failed Asylum Seekers) Regulations 2005.
The exception to this is families – where an asylum-seeker’s household includes a child dependant under the age of 18, they will remain eligible for support under section 95 of the 1999 Act after their asylum claim is refused or declared inadmissible.
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