Age assessments in the UK asylum system 2026

Anyone who works with children and young people seeking asylum will know the words ‘age assessment’. But what an age assessment is and how it works is difficult to understand. Through our work with children and young people as support workers and immigration case workers it is clear that many of those subjected to age assessments are traumatised by the process, and it can feel like the theft of their identity. 

What is an age assessment and why does it happen?

In short, an age assessment is a method used by some professionals to decide a person’s age. It starts when the Home Office or social workers do not believe or doubt the age of someone who usually needs immigration permission to stay in the UK such as people seeking asylum.

Why does age matter in asylum cases?

Age matters in any asylum case because it affects how an asylum claim is decided. It can change how consistent or credible the facts and events in their case seem. We also generally understand that children and young people may not be able to give the same level of detail as adults. 

It is also important because it affects what kind of accommodation and level of support someone receives. Usually, children and young people will get age-appropriate accommodation or foster care, the support of a social worker or a personal advisor, financial support and access to education. 

What is the age assessment process for an unaccompanied child arriving in the UK?

When someone arrives in the UK, they can register their asylum claim with the Home Office. This is usually when they will also share their age, date of birth and other personal details. 

When someone shares their age, two Home Office workers can decide that, the person looks and acts older than 18 years and that there is no evidence to support their age. This can be if the young person does not have a birth certificate or ID document to show. 

Very often in these situations, the Home Office workers will give that person a new date of birth based on their own opinions. The person will be treated as an adult and placed in adult Home Office accommodation. 

Fortunately, many people will come into contact with charities who can report to local authorities that a child is in their area. They will also make them aware that they should be treated as a child until a full age assessment is done, if the local authority considers this necessary. 

After this report, the local authority has a duty to make their own investigations. The local authority shouldcontact the child and either take them into care and accept their age or take them into care to carry out a full age assessment. 

If the child does not encounter charities or the local authority, then they are treated as an adult throughout the asylum process. Because someone’s age is based on the opinions of two Home Office workers in these situations, it is seen as a harmful process because getting it wrong can be detrimental to a child.

How is an age assessment carried out?

Local authority and ‘Merton-compliant age assessments’

An age assessment can be triggered by social workers at any time once they are in contact with a person who says they are a child. 

Unfortunately, in some circumstances social workers may even try to trigger an age assessment when someone’s asylum claim has already been decided, and they have established a life for themselves in the UK. 

Many things can trigger an age assessment by social services. For example, someone being able to cook for themselves, or advocate for themselves. It could also be that their teachers think they act older than their peers. Or maybe a dentist thinks their teeth are too mature to be a child (although this practice has been rejected and criticised as unethical). 

An age assessment by the local authority will also involve a number of meetings between two social workers and the person being age assessed. For the person being age assessed, there should be someone present to support them, either an appropriate adult or independent advocate. Often the Refugee Council act as appropriate adults, or social services can use their own advocacy services. There will usually be an interpreter present as well if that is needed. 

At the final meeting they give the person being assessed a chance to respond to their initial findings and the decision they are thinking of making. Very often this will be a negative decision. Usually, the social workers will go through their decision and then give the final report of their findings. Sometimes, this report includes photographs of the person being assessed, and often wide-ranging and often intrusive commentary about someone’s appearance.

If it is a negative decision, the person is usually moved from care to Home Office accommodation. This accommodation could be anywhere in the country. It can often be a traumatic experience for a young person to be moved somewhere completely new after establishing a daily life and friends in a certain area. 

There is no right of appeal for a negative age assessment decision, but they can try to challenge the way the decision was made by a process called Judicial Review.

National Age Assessment Board

In 2023, the Home Office launched their very own National Age Assessment Board (NAAB). The Home Office employs social workers for the Board to assess people’s age. Because age assessments are sensitive and critical to a young person’s asylum claim, this has been  criticised as a conflict of interest with the line between immigration enforcement and social services blurring.

Some local authorities refer young people directly to the Board for their age assessment. The Home Office can also refer the person to the Board themselves if they do not accept the decision from the local authority. Any challenge to a NAAB decision is also via a Judicial Review. 

 How is AI used in age assessments and what are the concerns? 

The Home Office are currently ‘testing’ a ‘Facial Age Estimation (FAE)’ tool which uses Artificial Intelligence to estimate someone’s age “within seconds”. It analyses someone’s facial photograph using an algorithm and no other information about the person.  

The use of AI in identification processes has been criticised as being institutionally racist. A Home Office report, has shown that the AI system being used to assess asylum seekers age “shows significant bias against Sub-Saharan Africans”, and “misclassified more than two thirds of 16-year-olds as adults”. Using this tool would then put children and young people who are racialised as Black and brown at significant risk of being wrongly assessed as adults based on a racially biased algorithm. 

What support is available during an age dispute?

If someone is being age assessed, they should be given the benefit of doubt and treated as a child until an assessment has been completed. They should receive child-appropriate accommodation, financial support, education and social services support. 

There are some great charities nationally helping people with age assessments and expert legal professionals and support workers to help children and young people through what is an extremely dehumanising process.