Dependants of migrants who entered the country since 2021 will cost taxpayers £35 billion by 2028, GB News can reveal.
New research from the Centre for Migration Control (CMC), exclusively revealed to this broadcaster, has found that the decision made under Boris Johnson’s government to allow skilled workers to bring dependants with them will cost the UK tens of billions of pounds.
Robert Bates, Research Director and founder of the CMC, told GB News: “The legacy of Boris Johnson’s government will forever be the disastrous impact of the ‘Boriswave’ of millions of migrants from Africa and Asia.”
“Not only has this wave of migrants inflicted a vast cultural change upon every corner of the British Isles, it also represents a huge drain on the taxpayer.”
“The Conservative Party flooded the country with vast numbers of students, workers, and illegal migrants in recent years, and even worse enabled them to bring their families and children, burdening the native population with the consequences.”
“It will take taxpayers years to recover from the financial cost of this decision, and Britain may never recover from the cultural implications.”
“This figure is overly conservative, and the situation could actually be a lot worse. After five years these individuals become eligible to claim benefits and inflict a further drain on the public coffers. We need to stop this by suspending all application for settled status immediately”.
In 2020, introducing their plans for the post-Brexit immigration system, the Conservative Party announced that “skilled workers and postgraduate students will continue to have the right to bring dependents.”
The Home Office estimated just 5,000-20,000 dependants would arrive in the following five years, however, this vastly underestimated the eventual number.
Between 2021 and the July 2024 general election, 533,523 dependants arrived in the UK under the scheme.
After the record surge in migration, the Conservative government shut down its dependants scheme in January 2024.
In September 2024, the OBR released a much-publicised Fiscal Risk report which showed, for the first time, that low-wage migrants are a net cost to the Exchequer at every stage of life.
However, the OBR’s report failed to take into account the fiscal impact of migrant dependants.
Rupert Lowe, the Reform Party MP, said: “If you come to our country and are unable to support yourself and your family financially, you should be made to leave.”
“The UK is not a charity. It is our home. We must take care of it, and that means halting this tidal wave of migrants.”
“Migrants must be a high net benefit to the country, providing particular skills that otherwise could not be found. Millions of low skilled individuals should not be welcomed. The system should be urgently changed to reflect that principle.”
Using data from Freedom of Information Requests to the Home Office and estimates of the cost of migrants from the OBR, the Centre for Migration Control calculated the cost to the taxpayer of over half a million migrant dependants would be at least £34.7 billion by 2028.
For each migrant the UK takes in, taxpayers must accommodate them through higher spending on infrastructure, healthcare, schools, public transport, and other public works.
The CMC calculated that the total net cost of child dependants on the UK, let in under the post-Brexit immigration system, will be £26.63 billion by 2028. Meanwhile, the rest of the £34.7 billion figure is made up from adult dependants allowed into Britain since 2021 - over half of whom do not work whilst in Britain.
The CMC’s figures include any contributions that dependants might make via income tax, VAT, and council tax. Even with these caveats, across the timeframe, public expenditure to cater for these individuals will consume a year’s worth of income tax from 4.2m Brits.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The data referenced relates to a period under the previous government.
“Under this government, we are prioritising the needs of the people by addressing the record-high levels of migration and tackling the root causes behind it.”
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