Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether child benefit is paid for children who are UK citizens but whose parents have no recourse to public funds; and if he will make a statement.

Access to Child Benefit follows the long-standing Government policy that those who have not established their right to remain permanently in the UK should not have welfare provision on the same basis as those whose citizenship or status here gives them an entitlement to benefits. All those admitted to the UK for a temporary purpose are required, under the immigration rules, to be able to maintain and accommodate themselves without recourse to public funds.

For this reason, apart from specified exceptions – set out in the Social Security (Immigration and Asylum Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2000 – persons subject to immigration control are not eligible for Child Benefit.