The Recourse to Public Funds (RTPF) Checker is an essential tool that enables councils to make informed eligibility decisions, protecting people’s rights to access public funds, and reduces risks of digital exclusion.
The RTPF Checker enables a council to instantly ‘look-up’ a person’s immigration status and confirm whether they can access public funds (benefits and local authority housing assistance).
Now that the Home Office issues most visa holders with a digital status rather than a physical immigration document, the RTPF checker will be essential for a service, such as housing, that may need to clarify a person’s entitlement to benefits or homelessness assistance in order to inform an eligibility decision.
The RTPF Checker reduces risks of residents experiencing digital exclusion as it instantly confirms immigration status when a person does not have an eVisa account or has difficulties obtaining a share-code.
The RTPF Checker is hosted by LoCTA Limited and operated by the NRPF Network and has been developed in partnership with the Home Office.
A local authority user will be able to ‘look-up’ the person’s immigration status by inputting specific credentials, such as a National Insurance number, passport number, or UKVI account number. This information will be checked against Home Office systems.
The information returned on the RTPF Checker will confirm:
The type of leave that the person has or has held within the last 2 years
The council can then use the information to inform its eligibility decision, applying the usual criteria.
The annual subscription charge is £1500 per organisation.
The charge includes:
Access to the RTPF Checker
An unlimited number of user accounts
Ability for admin users to verify accounts and assign roles
Fully supported Single Sign-On
User support from the NRPF Network and hosting company
A 50% discount will be applied to the annual charge for any council subscribing to NRPF Connect at the enhanced service level.
An outline of steps to join is as follows:
Contact the NRPF Network to request the RTPF Checker Access Agreement and review terms
Engage your IT department for help ensuring access is enabled
Sign the Access Agreement and return to the NRPF Network
Confirm the starting users, and who will have admin rights
Go live
If you would like to enquire about subscribing to the RTPF Checker service, require user support, or have any other questions, please contact: NRPFConnect@Islington.gov.uk
