Here’s where £8m a day goes, and that’s before the other costs of leaving refugees in limbo claiming benefits rather than working …
James Cleverly has been accused of increasing the asylum backlog in the spring of this year by “dithering” over key decisions
Overall, 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on asylum applications in the UK at the end of June, up slightly from the 118,329 in March
The backlog as one of the biggest problems within the UK’s faltering asylum system. Hotels housing claimants awaiting decisions cost the taxpayer £8m a day,
according to the Home Office, and were the focus of far-right protests and arson attacks during this summer’s riots
About three-quarters of all claimants are eventually recognised as refugees, but cannot work and must claim benefits while they wait for a decision
Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents asylum caseworkers says “Our members tell us that processing of claims has started to ramp up again since replacement arrangements were introduced in the king’s speech.”