Government agrees rethink to policy on ‘no recourse’

The High Court has held that a legal challenge to the government’s No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy can proceed and will be heard on 6 and 7 May.

The NRPF condition is imposed on migrants who have limited leave to enter or remain in the UK and prohibits them from accessing certain public funds. It disproportionately affects single parents, particularly women, including pregnant women.

The claim was supported by The Unity Project, which supports migrants who have no recourse to public funds, and sought a suspension of the policy to allow those unable to work because of COVID-19 to have immediate access to welfare support. The government accepted the need to review the policy and has issued revised guidance. This instructs staff to “provide sympathetic and expeditious decision making” during the pandemic when deciding whether to lift the NRPF condition in individual cases.

It was ordered to provide an equality impact statement on the NRPF policy by 21 April.

https://www.unity-project.org.uk/suspend-nrpf