By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Nearly four out of five additional payroll jobs recorded in Britain since 2014 have been held by foreign nationals, according to a new report examining the country’s growing reliance on migrant labor alongside rising welfare spending and economic inactivity.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report, State of Dependency, released October 13, found that Britain’s payroll employment increased by approximately 3.7 million positions between 2014 and December 2025. British nationals accounted for just 734,000 of that increase, compared with approximately 2.9 million additional positions held by foreign nationals.
Of those positions, approximately 2.5 million were held by non-European Union nationals, while EU citizens accounted for another 408,000.
The findings are based on HM Revenue and Customs payroll records and measure changes in employment by nationality rather than tracking individual vacancies or establishing that migrant workers directly displaced British employees.
The report found that the trend accelerated after 2020, when Britain introduced a new post-Brexit immigration system and experienced substantial increases in non-EU migration.
Since January 2020, the number of payroll positions held by non-EU nationals has risen by approximately 2.1 million. During the same period, the number of people receiving out-of-work benefits increased by 2.3 million.
The CSJ argued that successive governments relied heavily on overseas recruitment while failing to address barriers preventing millions of British residents from entering or returning to employment.
“Employers have gained unprecedented access to overseas labour while taxpayers have absorbed the growing cost of domestic worklessness,” the report stated.
The study also found that British payroll employment declined in nine of the United Kingdom’s 12 nations and regions between January 2020 and December 2025, while employment among non-EU nationals increased in every region.
Much of the growth in migrant employment occurred in health and social care, hospitality, retail and administrative support services, industries that have experienced persistent recruitment difficulties.
The think tank linked the employment changes to immigration policies introduced under former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government implemented a points-based immigration system following Britain’s departure from the European Union.
That system expanded recruitment opportunities for workers from outside Europe, particularly in sectors experiencing labor shortages.
Critics have argued that employers’ increased access to foreign workers reduced incentives to improve wages, training and domestic recruitment. However, the simultaneous rise in migration and welfare claims does not, by itself, establish that immigration caused the increase in economic inactivity.
The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has previously noted that immigration’s overall effects on the wages and employment opportunities of existing workers tend to be relatively small, although impacts can vary between industries and demographic groups.
The CSJ report nevertheless warned that Britain’s welfare system was becoming increasingly expensive while failing to address the underlying causes of long-term worklessness.
Approximately 6.7 million people across England, Wales and Scotland now receive at least one out-of-work benefit, equivalent to roughly one in six working-age adults.
The working-age welfare bill is projected to reach £136.1 billion in the 2026–27 financial year, an increase of nearly £50 billion in inflation-adjusted terms since 2019–20.
According to the think tank, that increase represents approximately £1,200 in additional annual expenditure for every income taxpayer.
The report also found that the number of working-age benefit recipients facing no requirement to seek employment or prepare for work has increased by nearly 1.7 million since 2019.
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who chaired the CSJ’s Welfare 2030 inquiry, argued that the findings exposed longstanding failures in Britain’s economic and employment policies.
“The truth is that successive governments have used welfare over decades to compensate parts of the country for economic failure rather than creating the conditions for prosperity,” Duncan Smith said.
“Compounding this, ministers have repeatedly pulled the easy lever of immigration rather than providing a better deal for left behind communities. Welfare reform, immigration and regional growth must now be treated as parts of the same challenge.”
The report also examined public spending associated with migrants, estimating that approximately £14.3 billion in working-age benefits currently goes to foreign-born residents, with expenditure projected to increase to £16.3 billion by 2030.
The CSJ argued that immigration, taxation and welfare policy have become increasingly interconnected, particularly as migrants acquire long-term residence rights and become eligible for additional public benefits.
Responding to the findings, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice criticized successive Conservative and Labour governments for their approaches to immigration and economic policy.
“This report is a damning indictment of Labour and Conservative governments who have chosen an open-borders, low-wage economic model that writes off millions of our own people,” Tice told the Daily Mail.
“Reform UK will end the welfare trap, halt mass immigration and get British workers back into jobs,” he added.
Reform UK has proposed reducing annual welfare expenditure by £50 billion, including restrictions preventing foreign nationals from receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits.
The party estimates that limiting benefits for foreign nationals could save approximately £21 billion annually by 2029, although that projection depends on assumptions about eligibility, future migration and welfare participation.
Reform has also proposed abolishing the existing Indefinite Leave to Remain system, which generally allows qualifying migrants to obtain permanent residence after meeting specified requirements.
The party has warned that expanding permanent residence rights to migrants who arrived during the post-Brexit immigration surge could create substantial long-term fiscal liabilities.
The government, meanwhile, has announced plans to tighten immigration requirements and expand employment assistance, including programs intended to help young people and individuals with disabilities enter the workforce.
The CSJ concluded that welfare reform alone would be insufficient without stronger regional investment, vocational training and measures to improve economic opportunities for British workers.
Its findings add to a broader debate over whether Britain’s immigration and employment policies have adequately addressed domestic labor shortages, regional inequality and rising economic inactivity.
While the employment figures demonstrate the substantial contribution of foreign nationals to payroll growth, the report’s central argument is that Britain must do more to reconnect economically inactive residents with productive employment rather than rely primarily on additional overseas recruitment.
Original article
Comments