7 - Statutory exclusion from social security: experiences of migrants in the UK

Summary

Introduction

Overall, children in the UK are at greater risk of living in poverty than other age groups such as pensioners and working-age adults, yet they are not equally exposed to poverty risk. Children in large families, those in single-parent households and those from minority ethnic households are consistently among the most at risk of poverty (Cooper and Hills, 2021; Vizard et al, 2023). That minority ethnic children are over-represented among children in poverty is well cited, and the drivers are often linked to parental labour market outcomes, racial discrimination, different cultural norms among families, as well as the inaccessibility of welfare services for different minority groups (Lister, 2021). Yet, as Lister (2021: 80) argues, the racial patterning of child poverty and the particular vulnerabilities of some children, including refugee and asylum-seeking, children are too often overlooked. This can be extended to other children in migrant families who are not fleeing war and persecution but who are affected by similar challenges, including exclusion from mainstream social security structures which in the UK context is referred to as ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) restrictions.

Increasingly, research has documented the experiences of destitution and poverty among children and families living in the UK who are restricted from accessing state support due to immigration policies (Dexter et al, 2016; Dickson, 2019; Pinter et al, 2020; Jolly et al, 2022). Immigration policy and legislation make explicit that most migrants and their dependents who come to the UK should be excluded from accessing income-based benefits, including those targeting children in families living on low income, and regardless of need. This is a form of structural inequality which overwhelmingly affects children from minority ethnic households. Some of those experiencing deep, persistent poverty include thousands of children from Black and Asian families who were born in the UK or are themselves British citizens (Woolley, 2019) but whose parents migrated here largely from former British colonies (Pinter et al, 2020). Although there are significant data gaps, analysis shows that migrants are generally at a higher risk of living in poverty than those born in the UK and the gap is greater for children (Hughes and Kenway, 2016; Vizard et al, 2023).