Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the press release by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities entitled New over £650 million support package for Ukrainians sees increased thank you payments for longer-term hosts, published on 14 December 2022, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing similar financial support to people hosting Ukrainian refugees under the Ukraine Family Scheme.

Ukrainian nationals coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme are given the same access to work, benefits and public services as those coming here under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, as laid down in Appendix Ukraine to the Immigration Rules, details of which can be found at: Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Ukraine Family Scheme does not require sponsors to provide accommodation. Therefore, the Government has not extended the ‘thank you’ payment offered to those providing a home to refugees arriving in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

Sponsoring family members able to provide appropriate accommodation can choose to sponsor their family members under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme in order to become eligible for the ‘thank you’ payment. They must undergo all the relevant local authority checks before their family member arrives in the UK.

The conditions attached to both Ukraine Scheme visas are identical in terms of length of permission to stay, entitlements to work and access to public funds. Local authorities also have flexibility as to how they use the £150 million funding for the Homes for Ukraine scheme to support Ukrainians on the Ukraine Family Scheme.