Citizens Advice have published the first nationally representative study of the harms caused by the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy.
NRPF is a condition attached to temporary visas which prohibits people from accessing most state benefits and services, including Universal Credit, Child Benefit and social housing.
There are over a million people who are affected by NRPF in the UK. It is a policy is a policy that, in its scope and its harm, has gone far too far.
This report confirms the ‘comprehensive picture of hardship’, that migrant groups and front line charities have long known:
- 81% of people with NRPF are behind on at least 1 bill, compared to 1 in 5 (20%) people in the UK at large
- 3 in 5 (60%) people with NRPF are currently behind on rent, compared to 8% for the UK population at large. And just under half (48%) of people with NRPF report living in overcrowded accommodation
- Nearly 1 in 5 (18%) have been unable to feed themselves or their household because of the policy
- Over 4 in 5 (83%) people with NRPF say that NRPF has had a negative impact on their mental health, with 1 in 2 reporting that it has had a very negative impact
- Around 1 in 7 (15%) parents with NRPF said their children couldn’t keep up with school work as NRPF meant they didn’t have access to the internet or a computer.
