Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who are not British citizens are claiming benefits, by immigration status and benefit.

Non-UK / Irish citizens can only access benefits like Universal Credit if they have an immigration status that provides recourse to public funds. Those without immigration status or with a no recourse to public funds condition on their status are not entitled.

The Department checks immigration status when assessing eligibility, but this information is not collated centrally and hence not readily available. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish customers.