Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of abolishing the No Recourse to Public Funds condition.

The principle of No Recourse Public Funds (NRPF) was established as far back as 1971 and is a condition which successive governments have applied to those in the UK with temporary immigration status. Migrants here without lawful status are also subject to NRPF.

NRPF restrictions are an important part of immigration policy designed to assure the public that controlled immigration brings real benefits to the UK, and does not place excessive demands upon the UK’s finite resources. We have no plans to lift or abolish the NRPF condition and have made no estimates of the cost of doing so.