Call comes as inquiry begins into charges that soared under hostile environment policy

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

MPs and campaigners have called for urgent action to reduce Home Office fees as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration launches an inquiry into the charges.

David Bolt issued a call for evidence as he started work on an inspection of the Home Office’s charging for asylum, immigration, nationality and customs services. Bolt said it would look at the rationale for the fees, including the amounts charged.

Following the Windrush scandal, the Guardian has spoken to people who faced severe difficulties caused by the charges.

'A money-making machine': families struggle to pay Home Office charges Read more

One family had to choose between paying for accommodation or saving money for Home Office fees. Another family, who have a disabled daughter, are still paying back the £7,000 they borrowed to pay the charges and said they fear losing their home.

Fees for immigration and nationality applications have steadily risen since 2010 under the “hostile environment” policy, including in the latest round of changes in April.



Among the charges are the £3,250 levy for indefinite leave for an adult dependent relative and £1,330 for an adult naturalisation application.

The Home Office made profits of up to 800% on some immigration applications from families. The cost to the Home Office of processing a naturalisation application is £372.



In 2011, the fee for adult naturalisation was £700, while the registration fee for an adult has gone from £500 seven years ago to £1,206.

The cost of a settlement visa for a dependent relative has risen from £585 in 2008-09 to £3,250 in 2017-18, an increase of 450%.

Naturalisation for non-British overseas territory citizens costs £1,330, compared with £906 in 2014-15.

Nationality registration for adults has gone up from £823 in 2014-15 to £1,206.

Stephen Doughty, a Labour MP on the home affairs select committee, said: “Given the repeated shambles in the Home Office over a series of immigration processes, let alone the widening scandal over highly skilled migrants, many people will rightly ask whether the Home Office provides value for money to individual citizens and applicants.

“Fees and charges being made by the Home Office should be reviewed. It is never acceptable for them to make a profit on these crucial activities.”

Figures released to the BBC showed the Home Office made £800m in revenue from fees in six years.



Jan Doerfel, an immigration lawyer, said: “My view on fees is that they are certainly too high and, in my view, will no doubt be prohibitive in the sense that individuals who would otherwise be in a position to regularise their status may not be able to do so because they cannot pay the fees.



“The ongoing narrative and myth is that migrants are a drain on the system and don’t pay their way.

“In fact, migrants have been paying disproportionate fees for many years, as the Home Office are charging migrants fees that greatly exceed what it costs them to actually process applications.

“It also needs to be borne in mind that many migrants working in the UK will have paid taxes for many years, whilst at the same time, would have been barred from having access to public funds to which they have effectively been contributing.”

Concerns have repeatedly been raised about the possible profit made by the department, given the lower cost of processing the applications.

Registration fees for children have caused particular unease. Registration is the process where someone who has an existing right to British citizenship applies to obtain it.

It costs £1,012 to to register under-18s, up from £500 in 2011. In 2014, discounts for a second or additional child were scrapped. The High Court declined to rule on the lawfulness of the fee last year.

Yvette Cooper, the chairwoman of the home affairs committee, said: “The scale of citizenship fees for many people, especially children, who have lived here for many years has become a real and growing problem. Under the current system, children can be left in a precarious position, unable to study, work or access social security at the end of their teenage years.”

Bolt’s inspection will “look at the rationale and authority for particular charges, including the amounts charged” and whether the services are being provided “efficiently and effectively”.

Solange Valdez-Symonds, the director of the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens, said: “We are especially concerned about the scandalous Home Office fee charged for children to register as British.

“This fee prevents many children, including children born in the UK, exercising their right to be recognised as British, leaving them exposed now and throughout their lives to the very same immigration system and powers that have so blighted the lives of many of the Windrush generation.

“Doing this to children, who have lived all or nearly all their lives in this country and are as British as any of their peers, is nothing short of a national disgrace.”

The then immigration minister, Damian Green, announced in 2011 that the government would charge fees significantly above cost as part of a deliberate attempt to offset cuts to the funding of the immigration system.

The Home Office said charging fees above cost was necessary to reduce the burden on taxpayers from areas of the border, immigration and citizenship system not funded by charges.

Chai Patel of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said: “The Home Office should not be making a profit on immigration application fees, and certainly not at the obscene markups we see today.

“It is simply wrong that there are children in the UK who are entitled to British citizenship, but cannot afford the exorbitant fees to register as British. Instead, they are either forced into irregular status, or forced into a vicious cycle of paying the slightly less expensive fees for temporary status, over and over again, never quite accumulating enough to register as British.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “When setting fees, we also take into account the wider costs involved in running our border, immigration and citizenship system, so that those who directly benefit from it contribute to its funding.

“There are exceptions to application fees to protect the most vulnerable, such as for young people who are in the care of a local authority. Application fees are also waived where evidence provided shows that a person may be destitute, or where there are exceptional financial circumstances, and requiring a payment would result in a breach of rights under the European convention on human rights.”

Additional reporting by Alexander Marks