Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 24
6th Report - Earned Settlement: Examining the Government’s proposed reforms
Published 13 Mar 2026
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee Routes to Settlement All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Most immigrants can only access benefits in rare circumstances and must be granted permission to do so by the Home Office. We are concerned that penalising people in difficult circumstances who urgently need support will deepen poverty and increase pressures on local authorities. It would be deeply unfair to apply the penalty to people who have already been granted access to public funds and would not have known that this could extend their route to settlement. Doing so would also make implementation more practically difficult. (Conclusion, Paragraph 88)
From: Home Affairs Committee, 6th Report - Earned Settlement: Examining the Government’s proposed reforms (HC 1409), 13 March 2026
Government response
No government response linked yet: deadline 13 May 2026, 172 days ago.