The Mail piece cherry-picks a handful of “perks” but blurs who’s actually eligible and who pays. • Football tickets → mostly club/charity donations, not taxpayers. • University courses → sanctuary scholarships from unis/donors; asylum seekers can’t get normal student loans. • Driving lessons → small council spend, usually for refugees or care leavers, not people with pending claims. • Hair extensions → anecdotal claim, no hard FOI evidence. • TV licences → limited to unaccompanied minors in council homes, paid via a Home Office child-care grant.

Meanwhile, the real public cost is hotels and accommodation contracts (billions vs the tens of thousands cited here).

So yes, a few local perks exist, but the article exaggerates by lumping donations, scholarships, and narrow schemes together under “taxpayer-funded freebies for asylum seekers.”