Anna Yassin - Migrant Services and Advocacy Manager

26th May 2026

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In this piece I wrote in Spring 2025, I was optimistic about the benefits of a pilot project which extended the move on period from asylum accommodation for all newly recognised refugees to 56 days. It was a welcome and meaningful change, and one that aligned asylum move-on policy with the Homelessness Reduction Act. The act places a prevention duty on local authorities to support people at risk of homelessness within 56 days, and a relief duty to resolve homelessness within a maximum of 56 days.

The logic was straightforward. Newly recognised refugees face well-documented barriers when moving on from asylum accommodation: accessing benefits, opening bank accounts, securing employment, navigating an extremely challenging housing market, and doing so often without family support or established networks.

Even with 56 days, the process is difficult. With only 28 days, it is frequently impossible.

The pilot was meant to continue until the end of 2025; this was confirmed by Dame Angela Eagle, the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum in July 2025. At that point, there was an independent evaluation in progress and we were expecting publication to be imminent.

On 26 August 2025, the Home Office abruptly paused the pilot for most individuals, with some exemptions, and reverted back to a 28 day move-on period. There was no explanation for this u-turn and no reference to the evaluation that has still not been published.

The impact of the reversal back to a 28-day move-on period was clear. It reversed what had been a downward trend, since the introduction of the 56-day pilot, in the number of newly recognised refugees approaching our services for homelessness support.

Glass Door’s 2025-26 emergency winter night shelter season began on Monday 10 November 2025. As of Tuesday 18 November 2025, one week into the season, of the 83 shelter guests whose immigration status was known, 40% were refugees. Of the 56 shelter guests who had interacted with our caseworkers, Home Office accommodation departure was the reason for homelessness for 41 people.

In response to the policy reversal, Glass Door joined Homeless Link, NACCOM and charities across the homelessness and migration sector in signing a letter, reported by The Guardian on 12 September 2025, to Shabana Mahmood MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, and Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The letter called for the immediate reinstatement of a 56-day move-on period for single adult refugees and for the publication and use of the pilot evaluation to inform wider reform.

In December 2025, Glass Door submitted a witness statement in support of litigation led by Deighton Peirce Glynn Solicitors (DPG) against the reversal of the pilot. While the legal challenge was pending, the Home Secretary agreed that, temporarily, support was to be extended to 56 days for newly recognised refugees.

At the time DPG estimated that around 3,000 people who would otherwise have faced eviction into street homelessness would benefit from the extension.

The litigation was successful. On the 5^th March, the Home Office communicated that from that day on, the notice period for all individuals granted leave exiting the asylum accommodation estate would be 42 days, from the point they are notified of a positive asylum decision. Why the Home Office settled for 42 days is still to be clarified, however, as part of the litigation, the Home Office have accepted that they can extend a person’s stay beyond 42 days at their discretion, by request.

The restoration of a longer move-on period is welcome, and the litigation has demonstrated that change is possible when the consequences of policy are properly scrutinised.

But 42 days still falls short of what is needed for people emerging from the asylum system with no savings, limited support networks and few realistic housing options.

Until the government commits to a move-on system grounded in the realities refugees face, homelessness will remain an avoidable outcome of the asylum process rather than an unfortunate exception. For organisations like Glass Door, the priority remains the same: supporting people subjected to a state failure that grants protection in principle but delivers homelessness in practice.