Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing partial refunds for overlapping immigration health surcharges in cases where the applicant has applied to (a) extend and (b) switch their visa from outside the UK and are able to demonstrate evidence of financial harm as a result.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The new guidance being produced by the Home Office is designed to assist local authorities in supporting families with NRPF, as set out in the Child Poverty Strategy. The guidance will provide clarity around statutory duties and key safeguards for local authorities, ensuring a clear and consistent approach. The guidance does not alter the eligibility criteria for any current schemes or benefits.
Children whose families are subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF) can currently access schemes and benefits such as free school meals, 15 hours of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds and15 hours free childcare for three- to four-year-old.
The Home Office will continue to work across government where relevant to ensure that migrant children with NRPF are specifically considered when reviewing or deciding on eligibility for schemes and benefits.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the immigration health surcharge refund policy to allow for partial refunds to be made for periods of overlapping payments in cases where the applicant has applied to (a) extend and (b) switch their visa from outside the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The new guidance being produced by the Home Office is designed to assist local authorities in supporting families with NRPF, as set out in the Child Poverty Strategy. The guidance will provide clarity around statutory duties and key safeguards for local authorities, ensuring a clear and consistent approach. The guidance does not alter the eligibility criteria for any current schemes or benefits.
Children whose families are subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF) can currently access schemes and benefits such as free school meals, 15 hours of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds and15 hours free childcare for three- to four-year-old.
The Home Office will continue to work across government where relevant to ensure that migrant children with NRPF are specifically considered when reviewing or deciding on eligibility for schemes and benefits.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals who entered in the United Kingdom without leave since July 2024 are in receipt of payments from his Department; and what is the (a) total and (b) per person sum of those payments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Those in the UK without lawful status are persons subject to immigration control and have no recourse to public funds. This means that those in the UK without a valid immigration status are not able to access public funds benefits including Universal Credit.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Question 103540 answered on 13 January, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on potential impact of the extension of the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain on the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
In developing the Child Poverty Strategy, the Child Poverty Taskforce considered all children across the UK, including migrant children and children in families subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds condition.
The earned settlement model is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026. Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reviewing the No Recourse to Public Funds income thresholds to ensure equity of eligibility for all children when expanding access to the free school meals to children from families in receipt of universal credit.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department has permanently extended free school meal eligibility to children in all households with no recourse to public funds, provided they meet income thresholds set out in public guidance.
This ensures that children can access support regardless of their background or circumstances, including the immigration status of their parents.
The income thresholds for No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) households were designed to account for the differences in household income between NRPF households and those with access to additional state support to ensure parity.
The government has set out plans to extend free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. The department continues to keep all aspects of the free school meals system under review.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people brought to the United Kingdom under the Gaza scholarship students route claim (a) Universal Credit, (b) PIP and (c) other benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The majority of migrants on temporary, time-limited visas (such as for work or study) are subject to a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition for at least 5 years. This restricts them from accessing certain public funded benefits and services. DWP cannot pay public funds benefits (such as Universal Credit) to individuals where the Home Office has applied an NRPF condition to their immigration status.
Students who are supported to exit Gaza are still required to meet all of the requirements of the student route, and are subject to the same No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) conditions.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit awards were made following the application of an exception to a No Recourse to Public Funds condition in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not held centrally by DWP, and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals have had their No Recourse to Public Funds status withdrawn since July 2024, broken down by month.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on changes of conditions on GOV.UK within the Immigration and protection data: July to September 2025, available in tabs CoC_01 to CoC_07 of the Migration Transparency Data dataset.
When an individual is considered for assessment of Change of Conditions, various No Recourse to Public Funds conditions are checked, with ‘destitution’ being one of these conditions.
The specific information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the scope and time frame is of their review into the UK’s reservation on Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention; when consideration of this matter first began; why the review has been delayed; and whether the outcomes of the review will be made public.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we’ve made it our mission to halve it in a decade. We are deploying the full power of the state through our VAWG Strategy, which was published on 18th December 2025
The government has signed the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in, demonstrating to women in the UK and to our partners overseas our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls. Many members who have ratified the convention have also made reservations on specific articles of the convention. We are currently reviewing our policies that support migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes considering whether it is appropriate to maintain, partially lift or remove our reservation on Article 59. While the review is ongoing, we are unable to provide any further details.
The reservation does not mean migrant victims are unsupported. We have introduced several policy changes to better support migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes expanding immediate settlement provisions to cover cases of transnational marriage abandonment and broadening the eligibility for periods of leave independent of the abuser under the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC). We have also implemented the Support for Migrant Victims scheme which helps migrant victims of domestic abuse with No Recourse to Public Funds. The scheme is delivered by Southall Black Sisters and their delivery partners, and provides support for migrant victims of domestic abuse, including accommodation, subsistence, counselling and immigration support. Our total investment for 2025/26 is £2.4m.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the commitment to end the discharge of newborn babies into bed and breakfast accommodation or other unsuitable shared housing applies to all families, including those seeking asylum and those subject to No Recourse to Public Funds.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to ending the practice of discharging newborn babies into bed and breakfast or other unsuitable shared accommodation through the Child Poverty Strategy. We are working closely across Government, including with Home Office, to consider its implementation and any other associated impacts.
Asylum seeking families can access some of the support set out in the Child Poverty Strategy, including Best Start Family Hubs in England.