Written evidence from Praxis [RCW0031]

About Praxis

Praxis is a human rights organization that supports people who have been marginalized by their immigration status.[1] We do this through providing specialist legal advice and holistic welfare support to around 2,000 people across London every year; building the capacity of other services across the UK; and campaigning for systemic change.

About this submission

This submission has been developed based on insights from our immigration advice and welfare support services, and the priorities for policy and practice change that identified together with the people who use our services, including the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) Action Group (a group of people with lived experience of the immigration system who are campaigning for change). It has also been informed by a cost of living tracker survey that Praxis carried out in October 2022, April 2023 and October 2023 with people who are affected by NRPF restrictions. Our submission focuses specifically on how rising prices are affecting women subject to the NRPF condition (inquiry question 1), how effectively the Government’s cost of living response has helped this group meet the costs of essentials (inquiry question 3) and recommendations for the Government Equalities Office (question 4).

Summary

A number of immigration policies combine to limit the incomes of some migrant households, making them more vulnerable to rising prices. People who are subject to immigration control are generally prevented from accessing most income-based social security benefits until they acquire Indefinite Leave to Remain which has become increasingly difficult, by the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition. This means they miss out on important poverty protections such as Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and various discretionary funds delivered through local authorities. Migrant households also have to pay significant proportions of their budget into maintaining their immigration status and to acquire settlement, which is an expenditure unique to this part of the population. The requirement for many migrants to frequently apply to extend their limited leave to remain, as well as long decision-making delays on applications, combine to make it difficult for some to find decent, well-paid employment.

Migrant women are more likely to be dependents on the visa of another person making their immigration status more precarious. They are also overrepresented on longer, more costly routes to settlement such as the 10-year route. Given that women are, in general, more likely to be primary and/or sole caregivers to their children, they also face greater difficulties in earning sufficient income. NRPF restrictions on access to government-funded childcare mean that migrant mothers of young children in particular can struggle to work at all. Overall, migrant women are more likely to earn lower incomes and face higher costs, making them particularly vulnerable to the effects of rising prices.

There is little evidence about how the cost of living crisis has affected migrants in general or migrant women in particular. For this reason, Praxis carried out a survey with people with lived experience of the immigration system in three waves between September 2022 and October 2023. Findings show that some migrants are facing significant hurdles to making ends meet because of the rising cost of living over the last year. In April 2023, two thirds of parents reported that they are struggling to feed their children and 59% getting into debt just to pay for the costs of essentials – three times as many as in the UK population in general. In October 2023, 61% reported they or a household member went hungry on occasion in the last 30 days because they didn’t have enough money for food. When it comes to migrant women’s experiences in particular, a slightly higher proportion of women (69%) compared to men (67%) reported experiencing hunger. Mothers appear to be most affected, with 55% of mothers reporting needing to use foodbanks in the last six months compared to only 40% of fathers. Mothers also make up 68% of those who have taken on debt to afford essentials.

Although the Government has extended a range of cost of living support measures to households, almost all of the support to low income households was channelled through existing social security benefits, making migrant households ineligible. In 2023, low-income households who are able to access welfare benefits will receive five times more support with the cost of living than equivalent households subject to NRPF. This is a clear example of immigration policy imperatives overriding other government objectives, such as making sure that every household has access to the support they need.

We recommend that the Government Equalities Office encourage relevant Government departments to ensure that all households on low incomes or who are otherwise particularly vulnerable to high and rising living costs have access to support when they need it, regardless of their immigration status. The simplest way of doing this would be to abandon blanket application of the NRPF condition. In the meantime, the Government should

1. Amend existing cost of living support schemes to actively include people affected by NRPF by providing alternative eligibility criteria;
2. Ensure future cost of living support for vulnerable households is designed so that receipt of benefits is not the only way to demonstrate eligibility;
3. Amend relevant legislation so that discretionary welfare funds administered by local authorities are not classed as public funds for immigration purposes, making them accessible to people affected by NRPF.

Background

NRPF is a condition that applies to many people who have migrated to the UK and who are present on a range of temporary visas, including for work, study and family reasons. The condition acts as a blanket ban on access to welfare benefits listed as public funds for immigration purposes including Universal Credit and Child Benefit, and applies to everyone regardless of whether they are working or not, or of how long they have been in the UK.[2] There are no accurate figures for the number of people with NRPF conditions on their visas, but the figures from the end of 2022 suggest 2.4m individuals would have been in categories of leave to remain which generally have an automatic grant of NRPF attached.[3] Women represented just over half (51%) of people with valid leave to remain, and are over-represented in certain categories of visa, including family visas (65%) which include the 10-year route to settlement.[4] There are an estimated additional 635,000 people in the UK who do not have a regular immigration status and who are subject to this condition not as a condition of a visa but by default due to their lack of status.

How are rising prices affecting migrants with the NRPF condition?

Being subject to an NRPF condition does not automatically mean that someone is on a low-income. However, migrants are statistically more likely to be in insecure and zero-hours work than the general UK population,[5] and face a 35% higher than average risk of destitution.[6] Having no access to the safety net means that, where someone is earning a low income, or their circumstances change unexpectedly, such as through loss of a job or breakdown of a relationship, they are at high risk of poverty. While it is difficult to know exact numbers, a recent study estimated that, of those who have visas to work or join family, at least 22,000 households would apply for Universal Credit if they could.[7] While certain measures are in place to protect some groups from destitution, such as the change of conditions process via which some can apply to lift the NRPF condition from their visa, and access to support from local authorities for families with children or adults with care needs, these safeguards are woefully inadequate. They are extremely limited in scope and very difficult in practice for most to access.

Some migrants also face additional hurdles to increasing incomes due to barriers created by the immigration system itself, such as short grants of leave to remain and decision-making delays,[8] or restrictions on the right to work for asylum seekers. The requirement to pay regular visa fees and additional charges to access the health service also creates an additional pressure on household budgets, especially for larger families.[9] Successive governments have repeatedly relied on the short-term nature of grants of limited leave to remain (usually 30 months) to justify the use of NRPF, arguing that its application to short-term visas is necessary and appropriate to protect public money. However, while grants of leave to remain may be short, pathways to settlement are long, with an estimated 170,000 people on the 10-year route. It is also becoming harder to secure Indefinite Leave to Remain.

There is a dearth of evidence about how migrants in general and people subject to NRPF in particular have been affected by the cost of living crisis in recent years. To try to address this gap, Praxis carried out a survey to explore people’s experiences with the cost of living crisis in three waves between September 2022 and November 2023. The findings present a clear picture of a group seriously struggling with the cost of living. In April 2023,[10] two-thirds of people with NRPF surveyed said they are struggling to afford enough food to feed their children, and 59% have been forced into debt to afford the cost of essentials – almost three times as many as the UK population as a whole 21%. Despite this desperate picture, only two thirds of people responding say they had received Government support with the cost of living, perhaps reflecting low awareness. Instead, half of people with NRPF are relying on charities and foodbanks to meet their basic needs, compared to just 3% of the general population. One third said they’re working longer hours or taking on work they wouldn’t normally accept to try to cope with rising prices. In the latest wave of this survey,[11] 61% of respondents reported that, in the past 30 days, they or a member of their household had cut down the size of, or skipped entirely, a meal because there wasn’t enough money for food. More than a third (36%) reported that sometimes they or a household member were hungry but there was no money for food.

How are rising prices affecting women with the NRPF condition compared to men?

Immigration policies, like all areas of policy, have gendered impacts, affecting women and men differently. Women are more likely than men to have an immigration status that is dependent on another person – often a male partner. Although official data is scarce, Home Office figures from 2014 show that 63% of visa holders on the 10-year route to settlement with the NRPF condition attached to their visas were women.[12] This is borne out by more recent research in 2022, which found a similar proportion of people on the 10-year route were women.[13] In comparison, just 19% of work visas are held by women.[14] Women are thus likely to be overrepresented amongst visa-holders on longer and more costly routes to settlement, like the 10-year route, and less likely to benefit from the support of a sponsor.

Being dependent on another person for one’s immigration status makes women’s position especially precarious, as their lawful right to be present in the UK and to exercise other rights such as working and accessing health care are contingent on this relationship continuing. In the event of relationship break down, the NRPF condition means that women who are on family visas and economically dependent on their partners are at risk destitution because they do not have access to the safety net. Women are also much more likely to take on the role of sole caregiver for their children in this scenario, increasing the financial pressures they face. They also risk loss of immigration status, and are at greatly elevated risk of domestic abuse.[15]

Migrant women in the UK are very diverse, but are in general more likely to be primary caregiver to their children than their male partners. This is partly because of traditional gender roles that cut across cultures, and partly because NRPF restrictions on access to government-funded childcare make it more difficult for migrant women to access the labour market.[16] Migrant women thus participate in lower numbers than either migrant men or UK-born women.[17] Of those who do work, women are more likely to be working in low-paid, insecure jobs than their male counterparts. They are thus disadvantaged by high visa fees and the flat-rate minimum income requirement for family visas, meaning that they face higher financial hurdles to secure their immigration status.[18]

Overall, migrant women are more likely to be earning a low income, facing higher costs linked to their primary care-giving roles and therefore at greater risk of poverty and destitution than either migrant men or UK-born women who have access to the welfare safety net. Rising prices are therefore likely to affect women with NRPF more, as they have less resilience in the face of increasing costs.

The following findings have been extracted from Praxis cost of living surveys. Owing to the small sample size, these findings are not representative of all migrant women in the UK but provide an illustration of some of those who have been struggling:

-          Parents were more likely to report food bank use, with 67% of those with children reporting using one. 55% of all mothers said they had needed to use a food bank, compared to 40% of all fathers.

-          Overall, 59% of respondents they had had to go into debt in order to make ends meet. Of these, 68% were women and only 28% were men.

-          56% of respondents had been worried about becoming homeless in the last 6 months. This included 47% of all women respondents and 81% of all men, suggesting that men felt the risk of homelessness more acutely.

-          When asked about their experiences with housing insecurity, 18% of all respondents reported having to share accommodation with someone they didn’t want to in order to have a place to stay. Strikingly, 76% of those reporting this experience were women. Conversely, overall 10% of respondents reporting having to spend one or more night on the streets. 90% of these were men. This illustrates the very different coping strategies available to migrant men and women when faced with the prospect of homelessness.

-          In October 2023, a sightly higher proportion of women respondents (69%) reported experiencing being hungry but not having enough money for food at some point in the last 30 days compared to men (67%).

One respondent summarized the impact on her child:

“My daughter is not getting what she needs, I can’t pay the rent or buy healthy food… and she’s aware of the difficulties we are going through. How are we going to manage?” – Lucy, single mother, London 

How effectively is the government cost of living response helping women to meet the costs of essentials?

Since the onset of the cost of living crisis in 2021, the Government made a wide range of support available to households struggling with the cost of living. This can broadly be divided into two categories: (i) universal (or near universal) support available to all households with no eligibility criteria imposed; and (ii) targeted support, aimed at those deemed most vulnerable to rising prices, and subject to a variety of eligibility criteria.

Throughout the cost of living crisis, households affected by NRPF restrictions have only been entitled to the first type of support, even where households would otherwise meet the criteria to be defined as vulnerable, such as having a low income, being elderly or living with a disability. This has largely been because, even though the various support schemes introduced were not classified as public funds for immigration purposes, eligibility for them was solely tied to receipt of another means-tested benefit such as Universal Credit or Disability Living Allowance. As a result, households affected by NRPF restrictions who are by definition unable to access those means-tested benefits were and continue to be excluded from this support (see annex 1 for a full breakdown of what support was available to households affected by NRPF).

Praxis compared two identical households comprising two parents working the same number of hours per week for the  National Living Wage, with two children aged 5 and 7 years old, where one household is eligible for benefits and the other is excluded because both parents have limited leave to remain subject to an NRPF condition. Our analysis found that the household entitled to benefits will receive £11,071 worth of support in 2023-2024, of which cost of living payments and support are worth £1,095. The household affected by NRPF will receive £195 in total. This is entirely made up of cost of living support, but it is accounted for by the Energy Price Guarantee, which is actually a saving to households rather than cash that they will receive. Overall, a household that is entitled to benefits will receive five times more in cost of living support than a household affected by NRPF this year. If all government support, including benefits, is taken into account, the benefit-entitled household receives fifty times more

When it comes to migrant women, even though they are disproportionately affected by NRPF restrictions, such that one analysis suggested that the use of the condition amounts to indirect discrimination against women based on their sex,[19] the Government has offered no additional support to this group. In 2022-23, the Government’s cost of living response helped migrant households to meet the costs of essentials via measures such as rebates on energy and council tax bills (see annex 1 for a full list). However, neither in 2022-23 nor currently has any targeted support been made available to migrant households, even where these households are living on low incomes. Migrant women-led households are much more likely to have low, or even no, incomes, meaning that they are likely to feel the impact of a lack of support more deeply. This represents a clear example of immigration policy imperatives overriding other policy objectives, such as ensuring that every vulnerable household needing support with the cost of living is able to access that support.

What could the Government Equalities Office do to ensure that government cost of living measures respond to the inequalities women face?

We recommend that the Government Equalities Office encourage relevant Government departments to ensure that all households on ow incomes or who are otherwise particularly vulnerable to high and rising cost of living have access to support when they need it, regardless of their immigration status. This is essential to preventing more people from ending up in deep poverty and homelessness. The following steps could be considered by Government departments:

Ultimately, the simplest and most efficient way of doing this would be to abandon blanket application of the NRPF condition, thereby ensuring that any household in crisis is able to access the welfare safety net when they need it. In the meantime, the following steps are needed:

-          Government should amend existing cost of living support schemes to actively include people affected by the NRPF condition. This could be done by providing alternative eligibility criteria based on income and immigration status, rather than receipt of benefits, in line with recent changes to eligibility for Free School Meals, for example;

-          Future cost of living support for vulnerable households should be designed so that receipt of benefits is not the only way to demonstrate eligibility. Care must also be taken that support is not legally classed as a public fund for immigration purposes, following a near-miss with the Council Tax rebate in 2022;[20]

-          Government should amend relevant legislation so that discretionary welfare funds administered by local authorities are not classed as public funds for immigration purposes, making them accessible to people affected by NRPF. Government must also ensure that this is implemented appropriately in local areas;

-          Energy and other utility suppliers should introduce alternative eligibility criteria for their discretionary support schemes, so that people in need of support are not required to demonstrate receipt of benefits in order to access this support.

Annex 1: cost of living support available to people with NRPF before and after 1st April 2023

In addition to the schemes listed above, which offered dedicated support with rising prices, a number of existing benefits are also designed to help more vulnerable people heat their homes during the colder months. None of these are available to a typical person with NRPF:

-          The Warm Home Discount and Cold Weather payment are not considered public funds for immigration purposes, once again eligibility depends on receipt of a specified means-tested benefit, meaning that a typical person with NRPF is excluded.

-          The Winter Fuel Payment is classed as a public fund for immigration purposes, so is not available to a typical person with NRPF.

November 2023