Local authority support for households with no recourse to public funds 2024-25

N ET WO R K No Rec ou rs e t o P ubli c F und s

3.1 Why change is needed

Whilst restricting people from accessing benefits remains a central aspect of UK immigration policy, alleviating migrant homelessness, destitution, and child poverty will remain a key area of social care practice. The UK government must recognise the vital role that local government plays in delivering this essential safety-net for residents with no recourse to public funds by providing funding and clearly defining legal duties in existing statutory guidance for social care practitioners.

It will be essential to continue the successful partnership between the Home Office and councils that has been established through NRPF Connect, but the high time-on-support averages and significant number of households supported on a long-standing basis demonstrate that existing processes are insufficient to reduce costs to councils. Therefore, 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.

To reduce the need for long-term local authority support, it is also essential that the government takes steps to ensure that people with pre-settled status who are at risk of destitution access benefits in line with recent case law, and that people in the asylum system who are eligible for Home Office accommodation have support implemented without unnecessary delay.

It is particularly concerning that a high proportion of families that were referred for, or were receiving, support in 2024–25 had leave to remain with a NRPF condition. The UK government should not put more residents at risk of destitution through extending immigration-related restrictions and should enable people with leave to remain to be assisted through the benefits system at times of need.

Councils will need to ensure that this key area of social care practice is given proper oversight within children’s social care and adult social care due to the high costs, rising need, and diversity of the people receiving support. Staff need to be fully supported to deliver an effective service and to identify available pathways off support in order to promote the well-being and welfare of people receiving support, as well as to reduce costs. Councils will also need to ensure that they are maximising the benefits of using NRPF Connect and are helping the Home Office to progress and prioritise the immigration claims of people receiving support.

3.2 Recommendations for government

Funding for councils and defining legal duties

The UK government should:

  • Provide grant funding to councils, specifically to fund the delivery of support to residents with no recourse to public funds when social care duties are engaged
  • Work with the devolved governments to ensure that equivalent funding is delivered to councils in Scotland and Wales, and Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland
  • Ensure that statutory guidance in England (Working Together to Safeguard Children and the Care and Support Statutory Guidance) clearly defines how social care duties apply to supporting families and adults with no recourse to public funds, reflecting court judgments and established practice, as set out in NRPF Network practice guidance

Assisting councils to reduce costs

As a minimum, the Home Office should:

  • Conduct a one-off case-resolution exercise for households recorded on NRPF Connect as being supported on a long-standing basis, with a particular focus on adults with care needs
  • Ensure effective processes for the expedient determination of immigration claims are implemented by casework teams, when supported households recorded by councils on NRPF Connect are marked as a priority by the Home Office NRPF team
  • Continue to fully resource the Home Office NRPF team to effectively meet the information needs of councils as well as undertake targeted work to reduce the backlog of long-standing cases
  • Implement a policy to grant leave to remain when a person’s complex care, health and/or capacity-related needs mean that local authority cannot withdraw support or Home Office enforcement cannot be pursued, but a resolution cannot be achieved under existing policies and immigration rules

The Ministry of Justice should:

  • Require the courts to expedite immigration appeal hearings when an appellant is receiving local authority support

Preventing destitution and increasing need for statutory support

The Home Office should not:

  • Impose the NRPF condition on more groups
  • Increase the time that people can be subject to NRPF conditions by extending settlement routes beyond 5 years

The Home Office should:

  • Enable caseworkers to exercise discretion to lift the NRPF condition when leave to remain is not curtailed and evidence is provided that maintaining an NRPF condition would lead to the person or family being provided with local authority support

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should:

  • Review guidance regarding SSWP v AT [2022] with a view to disregarding the availability of local authority support when assessing whether Universal Credit can be awarded under the AT criteria to prevent destitution

Enabling access to benefits and asylum support

The Home Office should:

  • Update the Asylum Seekers with Care Needs guidance and relevant contractual documentation to clarify responsibility for identifying and accommodating people with care and support needs, including a clear process for expediently transferring people from local authority support to Home Office accommodation, where appropriate
  • Reinstate the ‘split-costs’ policy so that councils are funded to support dependent family members when an adult asylum seeker with care needs is accommodated by adult social care

The DWP should:

  • Ensure that staff routinely implement guidance regarding the application of SSWP v AT [2022] to ensure that destitution is prevented by awarding Universal Credit to people with pre-settled status who do not have a qualifying right to reside when they meet the relevant criteria
  • Automatically issue National Insurance numbers when leave to remain is granted and the individual does not already have one (mirroring current practice for people granted refugee status)

Please refer to the NRPF Network website for more information about the impact of immigration policies and the solutions that could be implemented to end homelessness, eradicate child poverty, and reduce health inequalities.

3.3 Recommendations for councils

We recommend that councils:

  • Understand the cost-savings that a dedicated response to supporting households with no recourse to public funds can bring
  • Use wider service restructures as an opportunity to ensure that the key elements of support can be effectively delivered
  • Develop robust internal protocols to identify and manage NRPF cases, including responsibility for using NRPF Connect, particularly when dedicated workers are not resourced
  • Provide staff with internal procedures to ensure consistency of approach and practice when meeting need
  • Consider an ‘invest to save’ approach to increase access to immigration advice
  • Fully record the households they are financially supporting on NRPF Connect and ensure data is accurate
  • Ensure that staff are offered training and are signposted to NRPF Network practice guidance and resources

3.4 Funding context

The cost of providing accommodation and financial support to families or adults with no recourse to public funds when social care duties are engaged is not met by any grant funding or direct funding from the UK government, other than a small fund that is only available for supporting Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders in certain circumstances.

Leaving care teams will receive some funding from the UK government but this is unlikely to cover full costs of supporting former looked-after children who have no recourse to public funds.

Although the devolved governments do not directly fund social care to deliver support to residents with no recourse to public funds, the Scottish and Welsh governments have funded work to support councils to deliver services.  

The lack of funding for social care to deliver essential safety-net support to residents with no recourse to public funds must be considered in the context of wider cost-pressures experienced by councils.

3.4.1 Wider cost-pressures

Costs of supporting households with no recourse to public funds are usually met through overstretched social care budgets.

Local Government Association (LGA) analysis shows that in the three years from 2022–23 to 2024–25, councils in England had annual average overspends of 5.2% of budgeted spend for adult social care, 14.2% for children’s social care, 25.1% for home-to-school transport for children with SEND, and 51.9% for homelessness. The LGA also identified large increases of annual planned spend based on budget data for 2025–26, predicting a 9% increase for adult social care and a 10.1% increase for children’s social care.

3.4.2 Destitution fund for Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders

A small grant is available to councils England if they provide support to a Hong Kong BN(O) visa holder who is applying for a change of conditions. In such cases, the council can claim back up to £2,720 from the destitution fund operated by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. However, this fund has a minimal impact on overall costs as only three Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders were recorded on NRPF Connect as being provided with support in 2024–25.

3.4.3 Funding for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

The UK government provides councils with funding to support looked after children and care leavers who are (or were) unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. In 2024–25, councils could receive up to £1,001 per week for accommodating a child, with additional one-off payments available until Autumn 2024, where transfers of children from Kent were made within specific timeframes.

However, funding significantly reduces to £270 per week once an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child turns 18 and ends 3 months after a young person becomes appeal rights exhausted. Home Office funding, where still in place, is unlikely to cover accommodation and subsistence costs on top of other support the young person may be receiving from a leaving care team.

No funding is provided to councils for accommodating looked after migrant children or care leavers who are not unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

3.4.4 Assistance for councils in Scotland and Wales

The Scottish government has provided assistance to councils in recognition of the role they play in supporting people with no recourse to public funds, through the Ending Destitution Together Strategy. This has included updating COSLA’s guidance for councils and funding immigration advice provision.

The Welsh government has produced guidance for councils, funded training, and funded a partnership project involving three councils in Wales.

Print chapter