More than 150 local councillors wrote to Minister for Asylum and Border Control Angela Eagle urging the UK government to reverse a change they said is “guaranteeing” a surge in refugee homelessness.
Councillors from across the UK focused their criticism on the Home Office decision to cut the “move-on” period, the time a newly recognised refugee gets to leave asylum accommodation, back to 28 days after a 56-day pilot.
Why the shorter move-on period matters
A shorter move-on window can force a rapid handover from asylum accommodation to mainstream housing and benefits, often before paperwork, payments and local authority support line up. Winter can intensify the squeeze, as councils and charities face capacity pressures, housing placements slow, and rough sleeping risks rise.
Under the move-on policy, a refugee who receives a status decision must leave asylum accommodation within the set period, then find housing and support in the wider system. The councillors argued the reduction to 28 days creates a cliff-edge when people still need documents, benefit claims, and time to secure a tenancy.
The letter cited the timing mismatch between that deadline and access to money and housing. Most refugees, it said, need at least 35 days to receive their first Universal Credit payment, and longer to secure private housing.
With the 28-day clock running, refugees can end up presenting as homeless to local authorities, the councillors said, as councils attempt triage and emergency placements while also managing wider homelessness caseloads. The impact can be immediate, because the move-on period starts when someone is granted status, not when they have stable income or keys to a home.
Interim legal challenge and extension
A legal challenge in late December 2025 led the Home Office to an interim agreement allowing refugees at “imminent risk of street homelessness” to apply for an extension of support for up to 56 days. Councils backing the letter argued the interim approach still leaves too many people exposed and fails to give local services predictable planning time.
The interim arrangement, they said, aims to stop immediate street homelessness in the highest-risk cases, but temporary exceptions can create a policy gap when eligibility thresholds, inconsistent application and tight timing leave others without help. Once a status decision arrives, people often need to gather proof of status, start a benefit claim, begin housing searches and respond to local authority assessments, all on deadlines that do not move together.
That gap can widen when a temporary measure reaches its end date. The interim agreement was initially set to expire on January 16, 2026, a point that councillors said risked turning a short-lived safety valve into another abrupt deadline.
Practical barriers to housing
Housing access can turn on practical barriers that rarely match a 28-day move-on window, including deposits, references, right-to-rent checks and affordability tests in the private rental market. Where benefit payments arrive after people must leave asylum accommodation, councils and charities can end up trying to bridge a shortfall with emergency accommodation, homelessness prevention duties, referrals and advocacy.
For people caught in the churn, the sequence matters as much as the headline policy: a status decision triggers the need to prove eligibility, apply for support, and secure housing at speed. If documentation arrives late or a benefit claim takes longer than expected, the move-on deadline can become a direct pathway into homelessness approaches.
Councils’ evidence and charity warnings
Charities, including the Refugee Council and British Red Cross, reported that thousands of refugees are facing street homelessness this winter, while local services absorb the consequences. Glasgow City Council statistics cited said nearly half of all homeless applications in the city are now from newly recognised refugees.
Where benefit payments and housing paperwork do not line up with the move-on deadline, councils said they are forced into emergency responses that strain existing homelessness services. The councillors framed the move-on cut as an immediate test of whether the UK’s system can move people into stable housing without forcing a homelessness crisis.
They said the move-on cut was “guaranteeing” a surge in refugee homelessness.
U.S. policy changes and effects
Across the Atlantic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a set of January 2026 policy actions that similarly reshape how asylum-related cases move through the system, with downstream consequences for work and travel permissions.
On January 1, 2026, USCIS released a policy memorandum, PM-602-0194, titled “Hold and Review of USCIS Benefit Applications Filed by Aliens from High-Risk Countries.” The memo says: “USCIS is instructing its officers to hold and review all pending asylum applications and all USCIS benefit applications filed by aliens from designated high-risk countries. This guidance outlines the adjudicative hold, procedural requirements, and processes for the re-review, interview, or re-interview of affected aliens.”
In practice, a “hold and review” direction can pause adjudications while officers apply additional screening steps before making decisions. For applicants, that can mean case status stagnation, new review layers, possible additional document requests, and longer periods without clear timelines.
When primary adjudications slow, delays can cascade into benefits tied to pending status. This described impacts on work permits, travel documents and green card applications, with cases paused indefinitely while applicants are re-vetted.
A separate U.S. action followed on January 10, 2026, when the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice announced a final rule described as “Security Bars and Processing.” DHS said: “The rule, titled Security Bars and Processing, reinforces the federal government’s authority to deny humanitarian protection to individuals determined to pose a danger to the security of the United States, including risks associated with serious public health threats.”
The combined effect of additional screening holds and broadened bar authority can shape who gets humanitarian protection and how quickly cases move, because eligibility determinations may depend on security, public health and public safety-related grounds and other discretionary concepts described in the rule announcement.
Practical impacts for applicants
In the United States, delays tied to “hold and review” can reshape daily life, because work authorization, travel and longer-term applications may depend on progress in the underlying case. Applicants facing extended holds may need to budget for uncertainty, avoid travel that depends on pending permissions, and track document validity and notices closely.
People typically rely on receipt notices, biometrics appointments and address updates to keep cases moving, while preparing to respond if USCIS requests more evidence or calls an interview. When primary decisions stall, the ripple effects touch employment, travel and family life.
Restoring Order and Control: wider UK reforms
Back in the UK, councillors placed the move-on dispute within a broader reform direction labelled “Restoring Order and Control”, a package announced in late 2025. The package includes shifting away from permanent protection to 30-month renewable permits, extending the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from 5 to 20 years for some categories, and ending guaranteed housing and financial support for certain groups to reduce “pull factors.”
Those changes can affect stability for refugees trying to plan housing and work, because time-limited status and longer settlement pathways can influence documentation cycles and checks by landlords and employers. Councils argued that when status and support become more conditional or time-limited, transition planning becomes harder for people leaving asylum accommodation on fixed deadlines.
How the sequence of actions creates gaps
Once a status decision arrives, people often need to gather proof of status, start a benefit claim, begin housing searches and respond to local authority assessments, all on deadlines that do not move together. Temporary exceptions or interim measures can help some people but leave others without predictable support.
Councils said temporary measures can create a policy gap when eligibility thresholds, inconsistent application and tight timing leave significant numbers exposed. When interim measures expire, that safety valve can disappear quickly and leave services scrambling.
Links to primary documents
In the UK, the Home Office’s policy package appears at Restoring Order and Control, while changes to the Immigration Rules are collected at Immigration Rules statement of changes.
Key dates and transition points to watch
The timeline in this case spans multiple linked events: the return of the UK move-on period to 28 days, the late December 2025 legal challenge and interim extension framework, the January 1, 2026 USCIS memorandum PM-602-0194, the January 10, 2026 DHS and DOJ final rule announcement, and the January 16, 2026 interim expiry point that prompted councillors’ renewed warnings of refugee homelessness.
Because interactive tools will display dates and transition points visually, this section leads into that tool by explaining the sequence and the potential knock-on effects: legal challenges, interim extensions, implementation deadlines and expiry dates can each change who is protected and for how long.
Final framing from councillors
Councillors pressing Eagle for a reversal framed the issue as an immediate test of whether the UK’s system can move people from asylum accommodation into stable housing without forcing a homelessness crisis. They reiterated that the move-on cut was “guaranteeing” a surge in refugee homelessness.
