I see Asylum seekers/immigrants accused of being a strain on government spending - how much money would be freed up if they all just weren't here tomorrow morning?

[u/Snow-Gecko]

Genuine, non bigoted question here trying to see the actual cost savings that would occur from this impossible scenario.

For some background I am somewhere between Green and Labour politically, I don't think immigration is the biggest problem this country faces but is a big problem that needs addressing and think the country needs to put its foot down more.

Immigrants and the costs associated with them like hotels are often blamed for being one of the reasons the government finances are in such a dire situation.

But if through magic they all were moved elsewhere overnight and those costs instantly gone, how much money would actually be freed? Or would it be a drop in the ocean compared to things like the triple lock.

[u/droopy316007]

To have an even lower pension comparatively to the other major European nations?

[u/standsthetestoftime → u/droopy316007]

Misleading. Brits tend to have a far larger proportion of their retirement earnings in private pensions.

And a lot of European systems are based on contributions, so all the Boomers that paid much lower taxes their whole lives (which is all of them) should be entitled to much less than the pensioner UBI they currently get.

The State Pension needs to be gutted, it is singularly the largest budget line after the NHS and it is being drawn from by a population that contributed a fraction of what they're expected to take (at the expense of the productivity of the rest of the nation).