Overall costs and households receiving support (as of 31 March 2021)
68 councils in England and Scotland were providing 3200 households with accommodation and/or financial support at a collective annual cost of £57 million.
The 3200 households comprised of:
- 1636 families, with 2932 dependants, supported by 67 councils at an annual cost of £26.8 million.
- 708 adults with care needs, supported by 43 councils at an annual cost of £12.9 million.
- 856 looked after children and care leavers, supported by 29 councils, at an annual cost of £17.2 million.
The number of households receiving support has increased by 30% since the end of 2019-20, when data from 66 councils was profiled. The increase in numbers and costs of adults and families receiving support reverses the downwards trend reported in 2019-20.
Of the 1578 family households with immigration status recorded:
- 47% had no current immigration permission, including visa overstayers
- 16% had leave to remain with recourse to public funds and are likely to be in the process of transferring to mainstream benefits and housing services
- 15% had an asylum claim recorded
- 12% were European Economic Area (EEA) nationals or had European residence rights
- 10% had leave to remain subject to the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) condition
Of the 687 adult households with immigration status recorded:
- 39% had no current immigration permission
- 31% had an asylum claim recorded
- 20% were EEA nationals or had European residence rights (an increase from 17% in 2019-20)
- 5% had leave to remain subject to the NRPF condition
- 5% had recourse to public funds and are likely to be in the process of transferring to mainstream benefits and housing services
Referrals (April 2020 – March 2021)
5758 households requesting or referred for support were added to the database during the year.
The 5758 households comprised of:
- 3273 families
- 1818 adults with care needs
- 677 looked after children and care leavers
The number of referrals received increased by 10% in comparison to the last financial year.
30% of family households that were referred for support had no current immigration status and 21% had a form of leave to remain that was subject to the NRPF condition.
29% of adult households that were referred for support had no current immigration status and 28% were EEA nationals or had European residence rights.
Time on support and closure reasons (as of 31 March 2020)
The average number of days that a family household was supported for was 589 days (down from 629 days in 2019-20).
The average number of days that an adult household was supported for was 911 days (down from 1055 days in 2019-20).
A case is classed as ‘unresolved’ where a parent or adult is a non-EEA national with no current immigration permission or has leave to remain subject to the NRPF condition. The following proportions of ‘unresolved’ households received support for longer than 1000 days:
- 15% of families (184 of 1204)
- 35% of adults (181 of 531) - this has increased from 27% in 2019-20
Of the 1156 family households that had their support withdrawn and case closed:
- 79% exited support following a grant of leave to remain or a change in immigration status that allows access to public funds.
- 3% returned to their country of origin or left the UK (EEA nationality).
- 1% returned to their country of origin or left the UK (non-EEA nationality).
Of the 354 adult households that had their support withdrawn and case closed:
- 51% exited support following a grant of leave to remain or a change in immigration status that allows access to public funds.
- 7% returned to their country of origin or left the UK (EEA nationality).
- 1% returned to their country of origin or left the UK (non- EEA nationality).
Looked after children and care leavers (31 March 2021)
2493 looked after children and care leavers were recorded on the database, with 856 recorded as being in receipt of accommodation and/or financial support.
The number of looked after children and care leavers recorded on the database increased by 15% from 2175 at the end of Q1 to 2493 by the year end.
Home Office responses (April 2020 – March 2021)
The Home Office responded to 15,714 requests for immigration status information, comprising of:
- 7,333 notifications generated when new households were added or a change of circumstance was recorded by a local authority user.
- 8,381 ‘queries’ raised by local authority users about households recorded on the system.
The total number of requests increased by 7% since the previous year, when 14,625 requests (6,965 notifications and 7,660 queries) were responded to.
Target response times are set out in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The Home Office is expected to respond to a notification of a new household in 5 working days and a query raised by the council user in 10 working days.
Throughout the year, 67% of all notifications and queries raised by council users were dealt with by the Home Office within the response times agreed in the SLA. If the SLA is missed, councils will often wait an additional 5 to 10 working days for a response to a notification for a status check.
Data by region
See the data by region in England and data for Scotland
Data tables
NRPF Connect data summary table 2020-2021
NRPF Connect regional data comparison table 2020-2021