Access Denied: The cost of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ policy June 2019 By Agnes Woolley ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 Acknowledgements This report was written with the invaluable assistance We would also like to thank the Unity Project casework of Caz Hattam and contributing researchers Anna volunteers and the telephone research volunteers, Mulcahy and El Tawen Harrison. Nadia Chalabi, Spen Cyrrh, Papatya O’Reilly, Megan Richards and Felix Tambling; and all those who offered Many thanks to the independent advisory group, Jac- assistance, advice and comments, particularly Alex queline Broadhead, Director of the Global Exchange Goodman, Rahath Abdar, Sonia Lenegan, Alex Sass- on Migration and Diversity at the Centre on Migration, mannshausen and the team at New Unity. Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford; Catherine Houlcroft, NRPF Network; Adam Hun- Our thanks go to the Immigration Law Practitioners’ dt, Deighton Pierce Glynn (DPG) Solicitors; Yvonne Association (ILPA) and the Strategic Legal Fund (SLF) Markaki, Researcher at the Centre on Migration, Pol- for funding this study. icy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford; and Rupinder Parhar, The Children’s Society for their ex- pert advice and input. This study would not have been possible without the generous contributions of the anonymous organisa- Report design: Phoebe Willison tions and individuals who participated in this research; thank you for sharing your experiences and expertises Copy editing: Daniel Nemenyi with us. CONTENTS 2 Contents Glossary 3 Chapter One: Introduction and Methodology 5 Chapter Two: ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ explained 15 Chapter Three: Who is Affected? The statistics 22 Chapter Four: Measuring Inequality 27 Chapter Five: What are the Impacts? Experiences of destitution 38 Chapter Six: The Change of Conditions Application: Barrier or safeguard? 48 Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Policy Recommendations 56 Appendices 60 GLOSSARY 3 Glossary BME Black and Minority Ethnic - Termi- GDPR General Data Protection Regula- nology adopted by the Runnymede tion - regulation to give EU and EEA Trust and most public bodies to collec- individuals control over their personal tively refer to the UK’s ethnic minority data. population. ILR Indefinite Leave to Remain. CoC Change of Conditions - Request for a change of conditions of leave grant- Immigration A collection of immigration laws which ed on the basis of family or private life Rules state who is allowed, and under what application. conditions, to enter and stay in the UK, and under what conditions. DVR Domestic Violence Rule - An immigra- tion Rule which allows people who are LASPO Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punish- living in the UK on a spouse or partner ment of Offenders Act 2012. visa and are experiencing domestic LLTR Limited Leave to Remain - Permis- violence to apply for ILR. sion to stay and work in the UK grant- DDVC Destitute Domestic Violence Con- ed for a restricted time period. Those cession - Support provided to des- on the ten year route to settled status titute people who have no access to are eligible to apply for Indefinite money to pay for essential living costs Leave to Remain after four periods of and are applying for ILR under the DV thirty months’ LLTR. rule. Successful DDVC applicants are NRPF No recourse to public funds - A granted 3 months temporary leave to condition imposed on some migrants, remain with access to public funds. due to their immigration status, limiting DWP Department for Work and Pensions their access to mainstream benefits such as Universal Credit and Housing ECHR European Convention on Human Benefit. Rights Protected Age; disability; gender reassignment; Five-year A means to obtain settled status, characteris- marriage and civil partnership; preg- route [to whereby people who meet certain tics nancy and maternity; race; religion settlement] criteria can apply for two consecutive or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. periods of two-and-a-half years’ LLTR, The Equality Act 2010 protects people after which they become eligible to against discrimination based on these apply for ILR. nine characteristics. FLR Further Leave to Remain - a further PSED Public Sector Equality Duty. period of LLTR. FOI Freedom of Information Request. Request GLOSSARY 4 S17 Section 17 Support - Accommodation UNCRC United Nations Convention on the or financial subsistence provided to ‘in Rights of the Child need’ children under section 17 of the Children Act 1989. A child is deemed Zero-hours An employment contract between in need if they are disabled, or can- contract a worker and an employer with no not maintain or achieve an adequate fixed working hours; workers are not standard of health or intellectual, emo- obliged to accept any number of hours tional or social development. offered and employers are not re- quired to provide any minimum work- The Act The Equality Act 2010. ing hours. CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 5 Chapter 1.1 Introduction This report examines the disproportionate effects of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) policy 1. Statistics on the demographic makeup of on women, low-income families, disabled people, those who have sought to apply or have suc- pregnant (and maternity stage) women, and black cessfully applied to have the NRPF condi- and minority ethnic1 (BME) British children. By tion removed or not reimposed are set out to drawing together experiences of destitution and establish who is proportionately affected by statistical data this study finds these dispropor- the NRPF condition (Chapter 3). The NRPF tionate impacts to amount to indirect discrimina- condition is only removed on the grounds of tion in the case of those sharing ‘protected char- destitution, child welfare or exceptional cir- acteristics’.2 cumstances The impacts of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ 2. Attention is given specifically to the groups of (NRPF) policy are considered in light of the Home Of- people who are over-represented in the sta- fice’s equalities duties as established by the Equality tistical data and who share protected char- Act 20103 - also referred to as the Act. The Act pro- acteristics under the Equality Act 2010. The motes equality and fairness in society; it provides the factors which cause each of these groups to legal framework for safeguarding those with protected be worse impacted by the condition are then characteristics from unfair treatment and discrimina- explored (Chapter 4). tion. Equalities duties under the Act measure dis- crimination not by the number of people impacted 3. Experiences of destitution and child welfare by the implementation of a policy but by the signif- are drawn upon to understand both the ex- icance of the impact on those with protected char- tent to which destitution prevents people acteristics.4 from being able to meet their essential living needs, and how far the policy of NRPF af- This report is focused specifically on one group of peo- fects the welfare of children in the immediate ple with NRPF: migrants with Limited Leave to Remain and long-term (Chapter 5). (LLTR) on a ten-year route to settled status (see glos- sary) granted on human rights grounds, whether under the right to family or private life, outside of the immi- gration Rules, or on an exceptional basis. Whilst this group does have the right to live and work in the UK and are required to pay tax contributions, most people on the ten-year route to settlement - including disabled people and parents with dependent children - are not eligible for mainstream benefits because they are sub- ject to the condition of ‘no recourse to public funds’. The consequences of the NRPF condition, and the significance of these consequences, are measured by this report in the following ways: 1 This report adopts the term BME to ensure consistency with other public bodies, however, we are aware of the limitations of this term particularly in relation to categorising many heterogeneous groups under a single label, for clarification, nearly all of the participants in this study are of blackAfrican or black Caribbean descent. 2 The nine protected characteristics are defined in the Equality Act 2010, Part 2, Chapter 1, they include sex, age, disability and race, see https://www.legislation. gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/part/2 3 Equality Act 2010, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/19 4 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2014), The Essential Guide to the Public Sector Equality Duty , https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/ psed_essential_guide_-_guidance_for_english_public_bodies.pdf CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 6 Some of the key issues found on the impacts of the national origins. Examples of this unequal treat- NRPF policy include: ment include British children from NRPF fami- lies being restricted from benefiting from child- 1. Women constitute an estimated 85% of those care, free school meals and social housing. applying to have the NRPF condition removed (see Chapter 3). Nearly all of these women are i. More than 95% of the British children in this single mothers. The NRPF condition indirectly study are BME children. The less favourable discriminates against women on account of their treatment faced by British children from NRPF sex because - amongst other factors - it restricts families on the grounds of national origin is their access to full-time employment because of therefore linked to indirect discrimination on 5 curtailments to free childcare entitlements. the grounds of race. 2. The NRPF condition prevents people with low-in- 5. 74% of 66 people surveyed experienced at least comes from earning a living wage through em- one day when they were living with LLTR sub- ployment because it excludes them from in-work ject to NRPF where they could not afford to eat benefits. a hot and nutritious meal. 90% of these were women with children. 3. Disabled people, pregnant (and maternity stage) women and elderly people are often unable to 6.