Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to Universal Credit – Immigration Status and Nationality Statistics to October 2025, published 11 November 2025, what plans they have to collect (1) immigration status, and (2) nationality, for those who have no nationality or immigration status recorded on digital systems.

People who are not British or Irish can only access Universal Credit with a valid immigration status that grants them access to public funds. The majority of temporary migrants are subject to a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition which restricts them from accessing certain public funded benefits and services.

The proportion of Universal Credit claimants with an immigration status recorded as ‘other’ or where there is no immigration status recorded on the digital system has decreased in the latest statistics (January 2026) compared with January 2025. There are no plans to change how this data is collected, although analysts are continuously looking at how we can improve the statistics.