Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant Answer dated 12 June to Question 54984 on Immigrants: Finance, whether (a) local welfare assistance and (b) Section 17 Children Act 1989 support is classified as local welfare provision; and if she will make a statement.

Local welfare assistance, which is also sometimes called local welfare provision, is classed as a public fund.

Assistance given under Section 17 of the Children Act does not fall within local welfare provision and is not classed as a public fund.

The Government has already provided more than £3.2 billion of funding to local authorities in England and they will now receive a further £500 million to respond to spending pressures they are facing. Funding has also been allocated to the Devolved Administrations under the Barnett Formula. Funding provided to local authorities under the Covid-19 emergency response will be paid through a grant that is not ring-fenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how this funding is spent.

More information on the support available to migrants, including those with NRPF, can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-get-support-if-youre-a-migrant-living-in-the-uk.