Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the expected increase in public funds claimed by migrant workers.

Ministers and officials at DWP and the Home Office regularly discuss a range of matters.

Most migrants with temporary visas cannot access the benefit system. Access to public funds and benefits is usually at the point of settlement, which for most people will be after they have lived in the UK legally for five years, and the Home Office Earned Settlement policy consultation is looking at increasing this to ten years.

The Home Office are also consulting on changing the default position to maintain No Recourse to Public Funds at settlement and lifting this only at the point of British citizenship.