A Lifeline for All

Living in poverty has significant detrimental effects on children’s outcomes, both in childhood and later in life. Living on low income negatively affects children’s school attainment, cognitive and behavioural development, and their physical and mental health, even for short periods of time.

Children in recent migrant families and those with foreign-born parents are at a higher risk of poverty, with almost half of children with foreign-born parents in the UK living in poverty. In fact, children with foreign-born parents make up a quarter of all children in the UK who are in poverty.

Research from NGOs and academics in recent years has looked at how immigration policies in the UK, which restrict children and families’ access to mainstream benefits and vital support and services, contribute to children’s experiences of poverty and destitution.

Sabryna is a single mother from Jamaica with a British child and she has been in the UK for over 17 years. When we spoke to her for this report, she was on her third tranche of leave to remain for two and a half years so had at least four and a half years to go until she could settle, even though she has a British child and this is their home.

Each time she was granted leave to remain – three times – the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition was reapplied and she had to spend time and money getting legal support to have the conditions lifted. She told us that despite being a single mum, she has worked since she received her work permit and has tried to work all the hours necessary, but without recourse to public funds she really struggled.

• Most of the families we spoke to told us that while they had NRPF, they struggled to meet their children’s even most basic needs, such as paying for food or buying school uniforms, and paying rent and utility bills. For those with additional needs, NRPF conditions mean they are prohibited from applying for Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payments. Although some temporary measures have been implemented during the Covid-19 crisis as a result of litigation, generally families with NRPF cannot access benefits-based Free School Meals (FSMs) for their children and at the time of our interviews parents spoke about the difficulties they faced not having access to this vital support, which can cost families over £400 per year per child.
• Most families we spoke to experienced street homelessness, were forced to sleep on the sofa or floors with friends or other families, or lived in precarious, unstable and unsafe private rented accommodation. This caused parents great anxiety and fear, and made them vulnerable to exploitation. Living in temporary or cramped accommodation and experiencing frequent moves took a heavy toll on children’s wellbeing, particularly where children had additional needs. The transience, noise, uncertainty and unfamiliarity of temporary accommodation meant that some families had to spend all their time out in parks to manage their child’s behaviour and help them to feel comfortable and settled.
• Most of the families we interviewed (8 out of 11) were headed by single mothers and many had children with additional needs, such as autism. Our analysis suggests that most of the families struggling with NRPF conditions are households where parents are of African, Asian and Caribbean nationalities, predominantly from former British colonies. However, the children themselves are often British citizens, were born or raised here, and have only ever known the UK as their home. These families are likely to face other forms of discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion, in addition to the systematic exclusion from social security support brought about by NRPF conditions.
• Despite working as much as they could – one father worked 90-hour weeks – and often in key jobs like NHS staff, care workers, cleaners or in food preparation, without the ability to apply for top-up benefits or vital childcare support, their income alone was not enough. This was particularly difficult for single parents whose income was considerably lower: they could not get top-up benefits to support their income and needed to work on zero-hours contracts and in flexible jobs to be able to take care of their children, especially when children had additional learning needs as they were ineligible for vital support like Disability Living Allowance (DLA), which they were able to access when NRPF conditions were lifted. It’s important to note that families where parents are working in key worker frontline roles and who will not have the benefits safety net to fall back on will also be at far greater risk of contracting Covid-19. 
• Families who are destitute and cannot access mainstream benefits, may be able to access support under Section 17 Children Act 1989, which is often the only safety net available. Data from the NRPF Network showed that 8,117 families with at least 16,331 dependents were supported by local authorities under Children Act provision between 2015 and 2019 in England and Scotland¹² . While many of the families we spoke to eventually received support from local authorities, some experienced ‘gatekeeping’ measures and were turned away before getting support. One mum, who had fled domestic abuse, was told that her child would be taken into care if she didn’t have a place to stay, which left her feeling shattered.

• Other families received good support from social services and had strong advocates on their side. This was critical in protecting families from becoming street-homeless and providing them with some financial support. Even so, the subsistence provided by cash-strapped authorities was often very limited – under £3 per child per day – making it impossible to meet children’s welfare needs. This is echoed by other research (Dexter et al., 2016; Jolly, 2019; Price & Spencer, 2015). Without central access to mainstream benefits and other mechanisms, the support provided to families is likely to be greatly exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis as need increases.
• Despite the deep and persistent poverty that families faced, they were still expected to pay thousands of pounds in increasing Home Office application fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge every 2.5 years over ten years to be allowed to settle. A single mum with two children, who has no access to top-up benefits, child benefit or housing benefit, would have to pay over £23,000 altogether over ten years to be allowed to settle if she started her settlement journey in 2012. A family of five – two parents and three children – would have to pay over £39,000 over the same ten-year period.
• Unsurprisingly many of the families we spoke to were forced to take on debts or borrow from friends to pay for these fees, or risked overstaying and becoming undocumented. One single mum who had lived in the UK for 17 years, had a British child and has always worked in social care – including in nursing homes and for the NHS – was forced to take out multiple payday loans and had accrued debts of £15,000. She described herself as feeling trapped in an endless cycle of debt and borrowing. Children and young people’s own lived experiences of destitution, Home Office fees, the ten-year route and the hardship they face are well documented in other research.
• There is no publicly available data on how many children and families are currently living in the UK without recourse to public funds as a result of conditions attached to their leave. However, given that the government’s intention is to generally apply NRPF conditions to most migrants (House of Commons, 2020) until they settle, we can assume that most of those who have some form of temporary status in the UK – limited leave to remain or a visa – will have no recourse to public funds. Migration Observatory figures obtained from the Home Office show there were 142,496 children under 18 and 1,002,091 adults who had leave to remain in the UK at 31st December 2016.
• Of course, not all children in migrant families are living in poverty or indeed would meet the strict eligibility criteria of mainstream benefits if they were to apply. However, the blanket restrictions mean that even in times of crisis, they are prevented from applying. What the Migration Observatory analysis of those with leave to remain and the GLA estimates on undocumented children living in the UK highlight is that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of children and adults who have no access to the welfare benefits lifeline, regardless of their needs or the poverty and deprivation they experience.