An essential, yet costly, safety-net
Whilst immigration restrictions on accessing benefits and housing remain in place, councils are required to safeguard the welfare of children, care leavers, and adults with care needs with no recourse to public funds by providing accommodation and financial support.
In 2024–25 :
- 91 councils in England, Scotland and Wales supported 5,724 adults with care needs, families, and care leavers at a collective cost of £94m
- The volume of referrals rose by 13% for adults with care needs and 16% for families when compared to the previous year
Supporting households with no recourse to public funds is an essential, yet costly, area of social care practice, with the need for this vital intervention increasing in 2024–25. Extending immigration-related restrictions is likely to put more residents at risk of destitution and in need of local authority support.
For more information about costs and caseloads, see section 4.1. For more information about referrals, see section 4.2.
Home Office partnership-working benefits councils, but more needs to be done
Councils using NRPF Connect to work in partnership with the Home Office have achieved a high rate of case resolution – the number of households receiving support has not substantially risen, despite increasing volumes of referrals.
Across the year 2024–25:
- The overall number of adults receiving support decreased by 6
- The number of families receiving support increased by 44
However, the average time on support and number of households supported on a long-term basis remained unacceptably high, and the most common reason for ending support was a grant of leave to remain, which can take years to achieve.
More needs to be done by the Home Office to enable councils to effectively promote the welfare of children and adults receiving support, and to prevent local government from holding the financial burden of supporting people on a long-term basis, in recognition that many households will obtain leave to remain or be unable to return to their country of origin.
In 2024–25:
- Adults with care needs spent an average of 880 days (just under 2.5 years) on support
- Families spent an average of 501 days (just under 1.5 years) on support
- 492 adults with care needs and 451 families were supported for at least 1,000 days, making up 30% and 16% of supported adults and families, respectively
- A ‘grant of leave to remain’ was the case closure reason provided for 66% of families and 54% of adults whose support was ended during the year
- For those households whose support ended following a grant of leave to remain, the average time on support was 479 days for families and 779 days for adults with care needs
For more information about caseload volume, see section 4.3. For more information about time on support and households supported on a long-term basis, see section 4.6. For more information about case closure reasons, see section 4.7.
People accessing support will follow different pathways to resolve their long-term destitution
People accessing local authority support are diverse in terms of their immigration status and will, therefore, follow different pathways to resolve their long-term destitution. It is of particular concern that a significant proportion of families accessing support had leave to remain.
In 2024–25, 44% of adults with care needs who were provided with support and 36% of adults referred for support had ‘no current immigration permission’, making this the most common immigration status of adults who were provided with, or referred for, support throughout the year.
Councils also supported a significant number of adults who were seeking asylum or were appeal rights exhausted (ARE) following an unsuccessful asylum claim, and adults who had leave to remain with a ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition, with these groups making up 23% and 18% of adults receiving support, respectively.
39% of families provided with support had ‘no current immigration permission’, which was the most common immigration status of families receiving support.
‘Leave to remain with NRPF’ was the most common immigration status of families that were referred for support and was the second most common immigration status of families provided with support, with 32% of family referrals and 28% of families receiving support holding this status.
People with pre-settled status or a pending EUSS application made up 12% of families and 7% of adults who were receiving support.
For more information about the immigration status of adults with care needs, see section 4.4. For more information about the immigration status of families, see section 4.5.
Immigration status affects the length of time support is required
Immigration status is a factor that affects the length of time that an adult with care needs or family may require support for, with some groups, including people in the asylum system and people with EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) status, likely to be supported for longer periods than others.
Therefore, the average time on support and proportion of households supported on a long-term basis must be taken into account when considering how immigration status affects overall caseloads and costs.
For example, in comparison to 30% and 16% of all adults and families, respectively, who were receiving support for at least 1,000 days:
- 42% of adults and 30% of families who were seeking asylum, or ARE following an unsuccessful asylum claim, were supported for at least 1,000 days
- 33% of adults and 21% of families with pre-settled status, or a pending EUSS application, were supported for at least 1,000 days
To reduce the need for long-term local authority support for specific groups, it is essential that the government takes steps to ensure that people should have support implemented without unnecessary delay when they are entitled to benefits or Home Office asylum support.
For more information about time on support and households supported on a long-standing basis, see section 4.6.
Destitution risks are disproportionately high for single-mothers
75% of family households receiving support were made up of single-mothers (or female carers), demonstrating that destitution risks arising from having no recourse to public funds are disproportionately high for this group.
The Home Office meets local authority information-needs well when the NRPF team is fully staffed
The Home Office NRPF team provides local authorities with a high volume and well-used service, responding quickly and well within agreed timescales when the team is at full staffing capacity. 83% of NRPF Connect users who responded to a survey in June 2025 were either very satisfied or satisfied with the overall service they receive from the Home Office NRPF team.
Throughout 2024–25, the Home Office NRPF team received nearly 18,000 requests for immigration status information from local authorities.
Between November 2024 and March 2025, when the team had a full staffing complement, the average response time each month for immigration status checks and queries was 2 working days.
However, in the months prior to November, average response times fell outside of the service level agreement. When the Home Office fails to meet agreed response times, this undermines a council’s ability to manage statutory responses efficiently.
For more information about partnership working with the Home Office, see chapter 5.
Data relating to adults with care needs is incomplete
The true extent of the support provided to adults with care needs is unknown, due to under-reporting amongst current NRPF Connect subscribers.
In 2024–25, only 62 out of 91 councils subscribed to NRPF Connect recorded financial data for adults with care needs .
Under-reporting means collective costs are not fully known. Locally, costs may be higher than they need to be if councils are not benefiting from case-resolution approaches established through NRPF Connect.
For more information about costs and the number of households receiving support, see section 4.1. The councils providing data on adults with care needs are listed in the UK annual data.