Deprivation and the no recourse to public funds condition
Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford
May 2024
The ‘Understanding Migrant Destitution’ study, undertaken by the GEM team based at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and funded by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, looked at the impact of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy on UK local authorities, in the financial year 2021-22.
The report identifies a lack of joined-up policymaking between central and local government alongside rapidly increasing numbers of people subject to the NRPF policy, which restricts access to most mainstream benefits such as Universal Credit, housing benefit and child tax credit. At the end of 2022, almost 2.6 million people living in the UK held visas with the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition – an increase of over 1 million in just two years. The NRPF condition is attached to most visa types for non-UK citizens immigrating to the UK, and most of these people will not be economically vulnerable. But for the small minority who are, the lack of a welfare safety net places them at a high risk of destitution.
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November 2023
This briefing examines the UK’s ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) condition, which applies to people on temporary immigration statuses, denying them access – in most cases – to state-funded welfare. It examines the likely number of migrants that have the NRPF condition attached to their immigration status and their characteristics, including how many are at risk of destitution.
