This report tells the story of migrant destitution in the UK, and the numbers of people impacted
Since 2019, there has been a 136% increase in the number of destitute migrant people in the UK and in 2022, over a quarter (27%) of destitute households were headed up by migrant people (Fitzpatrick et al, 2023). In many of these cases, the destitution arose primarily from the households’ immigration status, specifically the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) restriction, which restricts access to the welfare safety net (including most mainstream benefits such as Universal Credit as well as passported benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credit). Attempts to tackle destitution in the UK therefore
must consider the characteristics of the NRPF policy, its impacts and the characteristics of the parallel welfare safety net which is in place for (some) migrants and delivered by local authorities (Leon, 2023).
Lucy Leon is a researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, at the University of Oxford.
Jacqueline Broadhead is Co-Director of Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and Director of the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, at the University of Oxford.
https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/UMDUK-Research-Findings-2024.pdf
