FOI reference: FOI-2026-3508
You asked
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding the economic and fiscal contribution of Romanian‑born residents in the United Kingdom between 2015-2025.
I understand that the UK Government does not routinely publish fiscal contribution data at the level of individual nationalities. However, I am seeking clarity on what information is available, and whether any of the following data exists, even if partially published or unpublished.
Requested Information:
1. Fiscal Contribution of Romanian‑Born Residents or Romanian national residents
Please provide any data, analysis, modelling, internal assessments, or estimates held by your department relating to:
- The net fiscal contribution (e.g., taxes paid minus benefits and public service costs) of Romanian‑born residents in the UK.
Any breakdowns by revenue type, such as:
- Income tax
- National Insurance contributions
- VAT or other indirect taxes
- Employer contributions
- Visa fees or Immigration Health Surcharge (if applicable)
2. Earnings and Employment Data
If fiscal contribution data is unavailable, please provide any information held on:
- Employment rates, earnings, or PAYE contributions of Romanian‑born workers, or Romanian residents, whether in aggregate form or as part of an internal dataset.
3. Economic Impact Assessments
Please disclose:
Any economic impact assessments, internal briefings, or policy documents that reference the economic or fiscal contribution of EU2 citizens (Romania and Bulgaria), where Romanian-born residents are considered directly or indirectly.
Any documents where Romanian‑born residents are analysed as a sub-group within broader migration impact modelling.
I would appreciate receiving the information in electronic form. If fulfilling this request in full would exceed the cost limit under the Freedom of Information Act, I would be grateful for advice on how to narrow or refine it so that it falls within the statutory limit.
If your department does not hold the requested information:
- Please confirm explicitly which parts are not held; and
- If possible, direct me to any department or agency (e.g., ONS, HMRC, MAC, or OBR) that may hold the information or any publicly available information.
We said
Thank you for your request.
1. Fiscal Contribution of Romanian‑born residents or Romanian national residents
We regularly publish analysis of household incomes, taxes and benefits in our Effects of Taxes and Benefits on UK household income releases, using the Household Finances Survey. These include estimates of net contribution and income at different stages of the tax and benefit system. While information on country of birth is collected in the underlying survey data, we have not created statistics on the fiscal contribution of Romanian-born residents. We have not created this information as the sample of individuals recorded as born in Romania is too small to support the production of robust, non-disclosive estimates for this group.
2. Earnings and Employment Data
We estimate labour market information for migrant workers from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the accompanying annual dataset the Annual Population Survey (APS).The survey collects information on the labour market status and earnings of individuals along with their country of birth and nationality. Unfortunately, we do not routinely publish information relating to individual countries.
It would be possible to request a specific analysis from the surveys by contacting our social surveys team socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk. There may be a charge for this service depending on the amount of time taken to develop the analysis and undertake quality and disclosure control processes. Because of small sample sizes, there may be quality concerns regarding estimates of employment rates and earnings for individual countries.
As this information is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.
HM Revenue and Customs publish UK payrolled employment by nationality, region, industry, age and sex, which you may find useful. For further information on this publication please contact migrationanalysis@hmrc.gov.uk.
3. Economic Impact Assessments
In regards to part 3 of your request, we hold the following information which may be of interest.
We hold census data showing the economic activity of Romanian-born individuals in England and Wales, which you can access on our website and may find of interest. Please note we do not hold data on this topic for the whole of the UK.
You may also find our Migration and the labour market, England and Wales: Census 2021 analysis, which reports on the EU2 grouping.
Additionally you may find data of interest in our migration statistics (Tables 3a to 3d).
We do not hold any further economic impact assessments, broader migration impact modelling or related internal briefings or policy documents on this topic.