Taxpayer circuit
Who paid the charities that run the arrival machine.
Local authorities, NHS trusts, the Home Office and legal aid are the main tap. Defra, the Environment Agency and the FSA sit on the wider grant book — food, inclusion, community — that the same NGO layer bids into. The state pays people to claim, to stay, and to sue.
Asylum support, 2024–25
£4.0bn
NAO: Home Office direct cost of supporting people in the system — hotels, grants, cash.
Hotel & dispersal contracts
£15.3bn
NAO estimate over ten years to Serco, Mears and Clearsprings. Originally bid at £4.5bn.
Grants to councils, 2024–25
£883m
NAO: Home Office grants to local authorities, including unaccompanied children.
Charity audits (running)
£244m+
Charlotte Gill’s published taxpayer-funding audits of asylum and migration charities, still incomplete.
Who writes the cheques
£4.0bn
Home Office
The contracting department
Pays the hotels, the advice line, and the councils — including charities that campaign against its own enforcement bills.
Open this file£883m
Local authorities
Councils and combined authorities
Take Home Office money, house arrivals, and commission the charities that fight removals.
Open this file£2,600
NHS trusts and ICBs
Healthcare commissioners
A parallel health budget for arrivals — while waiting lists for citizens grow.
Open this fileAppeals budget
Legal Aid Agency
Ministry of Justice
The taxpayer funds both the Home Office case and the lawyers trying to stop it.
Open this file£13.6m+
Defra, Environment Agency, FSA
The wider Whitehall grant book
Not the border department. Still on the same taxpayer circuit that feeds the NGO layer.
Open this fileWho cashes them
£235m
Migrant Help
Charity · Home Office contractor
Paid by the Home Office to help people claim — then lobbied against the same government’s removal policy.
Open this file£41.6m
Refugee Council
Charity · HO contractor and campaigner
Takes Home Office money to guide children through the system, and campaigns to keep the system open.
Open this file£16.8m
Refugee Action
Charity · campaigner
Public money in, anti-detention and anti-removal campaigning out.
Open this fileThe grant register
Search a department, a charity, or a number. This is not every line in every council — it is the documented national tap plus the pattern underneath.
| Paid by | Paid to | Amount | What for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Office | Migrant Help | £235m contract 2019–2029 | AIRE: advice on asylum claims, eligibility and complaints. Charity called Rwanda “cruel and immoral” while on the contract. |
| Home Office | Migrant Help | £154m 2020–24 | Taxpayer income recorded in charity audits. Income quadrupled after the AIRE award. |
| Home Office | Serco, Mears, Clearsprings | £15.3bn est. 2019–2029 | Asylum accommodation. £2.7bn of the £4.0bn 2024–25 support bill was housing. |
| Home Office | Local authorities | £883m 2024–25 | Grants including unaccompanied children. Councils then commission NGOs for advice, ESOL, housing and “wraparound”. |
| Home Office | Local authorities | £1,200 each 2025–26 | Asylum dispersal grant: per asylum seeker in DA/ODA/IA/hotels as of 30 March 2025, plus £100/month for extra beds. |
| Home Office | Refugee Council | £8.0m + £3.2m since 2020 | Contracts plus a Children’s Advisory grant for unaccompanied children. Further £215k mental-health grant; £5.37m EU AMIF integration money facilitated by the department. |
| Home Office | JCWI | £47,015 since 2020 | Contract/other funding. JCWI campaigns against enforcement while taking public money. |
| Home Office | NHS / ICBs | £2,600 each 2026–27 | Per-refugee healthcare tariff under UK resettlement schemes, paid to Integrated Care Boards. |
| Local authorities | Refugee NGOs | varies ongoing | Councils subcontract advice, destitution funds, ESOL, “welcome” and hotel liaison. The HO grant is the top of a pyramid. |
| Legal Aid Agency | Law centres, NGOs, solicitors | ongoing annual | Pays the appeals, judicial reviews and Article 8 claims that delay removal. Ministry of Justice owns the machine. |
| Defra | FareShare, City Harvest and 10 others | £13.6m 2025 | Food-redistribution grants. Networks feed destitute people, including asylum seekers. Not a border contract — still taxpayer cash into the same charity layer. |
| Home Office | Refugee Action | £16.8m 2021–25 | Taxpayer funding recorded in published charity audits. Campaigns against detention and removal. |
| Various public bodies | Asylum Aid / Asylum Welcome | £837k / £2.9m 2020–25 | Legal and local support NGOs. Public grants sit alongside litigation against the Home Office. |
Care4Calais had no Home Office grant in the November 2025 parliamentary answer. Defra’s food grants are not border contracts; they still land in the destitution network. Environment Agency and FSA are the thinner end of the same public estate — listed because that is where the accounts keep going, not because they run the boats. Full sources on the About page.