Summary of policy recommendations

What needs to change? 

In order to end homelessness and eradicate child poverty, the government needs to:

• End use of the 'No Recourse to Public Funds' (NRPF) condition  
• Give all people with pre-settled status access to means-tested benefits and homelessness assistance 
• Reinstate legal aid for immigration matters 

How can existing policy impacts be mitigated? 

Whilst people continue to be restricted from accessing benefits and local authority housing assistance due to their immigration status, the following changes by government would go some way to reduce the impact of immigration policies on child poverty, destitution and homelessness.

Immigration policies 

• Do not extend use of the NRPF condition to new immigration categories 
• Limit all settlement routes to five years  
• Reduce immigration application fees and/or introduce a fee waiver for ILR applications on the family and private life routes 
• Extend the Destitution Domestic Violence Concession and domestic violence ILR rule to all victims of domestic abuse, regardless of immigration status 

Access to benefits and other services 

• Enable councils to provide discretionary cost of living and emergency support to all residents in need by removing ‘discretionary welfare payments’ from the list of public funds (for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) 
• Remove child benefit from the list of public funds and amend benefit regulations to enable all households with children to access this, subject to the income threshold 
• Enable all working parents to access 30 hours extended childcare, tax-free childcare, and new schemes being introduced in 2024 and 2025 for 9-month to 5-year-old children
• Enable all people who have permission to work to be able to access employment schemes, such as the Work and Health programme 
• Open up access to the Healthy Start scheme to all low-income pregnant women and families with no recourse to public funds 
• Make the Support for Migrant Victims scheme permanent and/or fund councils to provide support to victims who do not qualify for statutory support provided by social care or the Home Office
• Fully fund councils to provide support to all people with no recourse to public funds who are at risk of homelessness, including those who do not qualify for support from social care services.

Legal aid 

• Reinstate legal aid for specific groups, which could include: families and adults supported by local authorities, all victims of domestic abuse, people who are rough sleeping and people making human rights-based applications.  

What needs to change? 

In order to significantly reduce pressures on councils arising from the provision of accommodation and financial support to people with no recourse to public funds, the following changes are required:

• Central government to cover the full costs for councils when social care duties are engaged to provide accommodation and financial support to families and adults with no recourse to public funds 
• The Home Office conducts a one-off exercise to clear the backlog of long-standing cases recorded on NRPF Connect by granting leave to remain to people being provided with accommodation and/or financial support
• The Home Office implements policy and procedural changes to ensure that councils only need to provide short-term support interventions when social care duties are engaged

How can existing policy impacts be mitigated? 

Whilst councils are not funded by government for providing accommodation and financial support to people with no recourse to public funds, and a significant number of households remain supported on a long-term basis, the following steps need to be taken to mitigate the cost and resource impact on councils: 

• Central government to deliver grant funding to councils, which can be used by a council to invest in improving its response when statutory social care duties are engaged to support families and adults with care needs with no recourse to public funds
• Immigration claims made by households that are recorded on NRPF Connect as financially supported by councils are routinely prioritised by Home Office casework teams for resolution so that they do not become ‘1000-day cases’ 
• Ensure that the Home Office NRPF team is resourced sufficiently to meet council needs for immigration status information as well as continuing their essential review of the immigration cases of households supported for 1000-days or longer 
• Where households recorded on NRPF Connect are ‘appeals rights exhausted’ and have no outstanding immigration claim, a policy solution is implemented in order to grant leave when return to country of origin cannot be achieved, such as for adults with complex care needs or mental capacity issues
• The courts are able to expedite immigration appeal hearings on the basis that an appellant is receiving local authority support
• National Insurance numbers are automatically issued to anyone without one following grant of leave to remain (as in the asylum system) 
• Asylum support applications (section 95 and section 4) are processed expediently when the household is recorded on NRPF Connect as financially supported by a council  
• When immigration or other national policies are formed that are likely to increase homelessness and destitution, a new burdens assessment must be undertaken that considers how this will affect existing services or create new pressures on local government 

What needs to change? 

In order to reduce health inequalities in communities, the following changes are required:

• Scrap upfront charging for secondary NHS care in England 
• Amend the Overseas Visitors (NHS) Charging Regulations 2015 to exempt anyone who is receiving local authority support (s17 Children Act 1989, Care Act 2014, leaving care provisions of the Children Act 1989) from charging for secondary and community NHS care in England
• Scottish and Welsh governments to consider introducing a similar exemption for people receiving the equivalent local authority support

How can existing policy impacts be mitigated? 

Whilst people remain subject to upfront charging for secondary and community NHS treatment in England, the following changes are required to mitigate the impact of this on individuals and councils:

• NHS Trusts in England do not pursue debts when patients are receiving accommodation and/or financial support from their local authority