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Following on from the Restoring Order paper in November 2025, on 5 March, the government launched a consultation on family return. The consultation, which is open until 28 May, also seeks views on bringing in the asylum support provisions of the Immigration Act 2016 (IA16).

The consultation reveals that the government is considering not just changes to support for families, but changes to entitlements of everyone whose asylum claim is refused. In other words, they are looking at bringing in the entirety of the IA16 asylum support provisions.

If these changes are brought in, families with children under 18 would no longer get support if their asylum claim fails. Once they reach this stage, they might qualify for much more restricted support from the Home Office or the local authority. But if they don’t qualify under these new rules, they will face destitution.

Young people who came to the UK as unaccompanied children would also face a similar situation upon reaching 18. They will no longer qualify for leaving-care support from local authorities.

Instead, they will be thrust into the same system as other adults whose claims have been refused or could still get support from local authorities, but on a much more restricted basis. As with families, if they don’t qualify for these forms of support, they will face destitution.

Section 4 support would be repealed and replaced with a much more restricted form of support, which doesn’t carry a right of appeal.

People currently on support under the existing system would keep their support under current rules, except they would lose a right of appeal if their support is stopped. However, the consultation documents explain that the government is considering changing the law so that the new system applies retrospectively (i.e. people on current support will be dealt with under the new laws).

Our IA16 briefing explains these changes in more detail.

The IA16 is already law, but the support provisions are not yet in force. If, following the consultation, the government decides to bring them in, they will need to pass the necessary regulations to enable the new system to work. They had previously committed to consult on these regulations.

Once before Parliament, passing them is a relatively quick process. They will also need to create new casework systems including agreements with local authorities — though this may prove trickier to do.

These changes are drastic and will have a considerable detrimental effect on the lives of people in the asylum system, on local authorities and on communities. But the government seems determined to do this. That said, when previous governments have tried to bring these changes in, it proved too difficult for them to do so.

What we can do

The Home Office is seeking the views of specialist organisations and individuals. We have been asked to pass the consultation on, so please review it and consider whether your organisation has the capacity to respond by the deadline of 28 May.

ASAP will be responding and talking to the Home Office about their plans. We will share whatever information we can about what is being proposed.

Conditions of support

Alongside the launch of the consultation, the government made changes to the asylum support regulations, introducing a new rule that working illegally would breach the conditions of support. Changes to s95 rules came into force on 27 March and are expected to do so on 2 June for s4 support.

The Home Office has explained that the new rules will make it easier for them to investigate breach of conditions and send a stronger message that working illegally has consequences. 

Duty to provide support

The duty to provide s95 support is expected to be revoked in June. The government has already indicated that this will enable them to deny support for certain groups — e.g. people who can work, can support themselves in other ways or don’t follow the rules.

The Home Office has not yet developed a policy explaining how this change will be implemented. Until this happens, the existing system will remain in place. 

Other changes to asylum support

The Home Office is also concentrating on applying the current rules more rigorously:

• We are already seeing a much more careful application of the ‘breach of conditions’ rules, meaning more people are facing support discontinuations
• They have already reinstated the ‘failure to travel’ processes for single adults moving from hotels to dispersal accommodation; we anticipate these rules will be rolled out to everyone in the asylum support system, meaning that people who don’t move may have their support stopped
• We anticipate that they will apply the existing contribution rules which are currently not fully implemented; these require people who are destitute, but have money, to contribute to their support
• People who have been overpaid support are now more commonly being pursued for repayments
• As they move to close hotels, it seems they will continue to focus on opening more large sites.

There have been reports that the rules on assets will be changed, so that the value of cars and e-bikes are taken into account when deciding destitution. (Cars and other vehicles are already relevant assets.)

However, we anticipate they may make other changes to the list of assets or introduce rules that allow them to value and sell assets. These would probably require new legislation, so we anticipate an announcement later this year.