In 2018, the UK Home Office made £500million from immigration fees. Source: The Times

In 2016, 2.5 million overseas-born people were in poverty (32% of all overseas-born people) – this contrasts with a poverty rate of 19% for UK-born people. Source: JRF

Children in migrant families are more likely to live in poverty compared to those in UK-born or long-term resident families. This is because they are more likely to live in households where at least one adult is not in employment, in privately rented accommodation and are more likely to have NRPF due to their parents’ immigration status. Source: Migration Observatory

No Recourse to Public Funds

• No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) was introduced in 1999 by New Labour’s Immigration and Asylum Act (Section 115).
• This policy dictates that anyone ‘subject to immigration control’ has NRPF and therefore, cannot access ‘public funds’.
• These ‘public funds’ include: Universal Credit, Disability Living Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance (see full list here).
• In 2012, as part of the government’s ‘hostile environment’ measures, the Home Office began automatically applying the NRPF condition to people granted leave to remain on family or private life grounds.
• NRPF is even applied to individuals with a Limited Leave to Remain visa status. This means that, in spite of paying the same tax as all other working UK citizens (council tax, income tax and national insurance), they are not entitled to access public funds. 
• With no access to public funds, people with NRPF can often be left destitute, resulting in reliance on food banks and homelessness.
• This inequality and deprivation amongst people with NRPF grew considerably during the pandemic – the effects of which are still being felt. 2019 research revealed NRPF has a disproportionate impact on women, low-income families, disabled people, and black and minority ethnic (BAME) children and, as of June 2020, nearly 1.4 million people had No Recourse to Public Funds (Citizens Advice research) with 150,000 of those people being children. Source: Free Movement
• At the end of 2021, at least 224,576 non-EEA citizens under age 18 would be expected to have ‘no recourse to public funds’. Source: The Migration Observatory

The Windrush Scandal 

• The ‘Windrush’ generation are those who arrived in the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1973.
• The Windrush scandal began to surface in 2017 after it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were from the ‘Windrush’ generation, had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights.
• A Windrush Compensation Scheme was launched on 3 April 2019 as reparations for the families and individuals that were impacted.
• Despite the initial estimate of about 15,000 people being eligible for compensation, as of the end of November 2022 only 1,307 people have received payment.
• As of October 2022, 23 people are known to have died before receiving compensation.
• Many Windrush campaigners (such as Patrick Vernon) firmly believe that moving the operation of the scheme out of the Home Office is a necessary step to prevent delays, as they are incapable of supporting victims on an emotional level.
• In June 2023, the country will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of those on board the Empire Windrush with a series of events around the country.