Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Conclusion 19
Seventh Report - Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds
Published 14 Apr 2022
Paragraph 70
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Thousands of families with NRPF are supported by local authorities under Section 17 every year, with costs running into the tens of millions. We are concerned that this indicates that the mechanisms used to support households in poverty with no recourse to public funds does not represent value for money for the taxpayer.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Seventh Report - Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds (HC 603), paragraph 70, 14 April 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 June 2022 (deadline 14 June 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government responds to each recommendation, taking forward some reviews, data work and funding while stating "there are no plans to shorten the maximum period of time spent subject to NRPF for families with children" and declining several others.
- On domestic abuse, it will provide £1.4 million in 2022–23 to continue funding support for migrant victims, with the independent evaluation of the pilot due to report in Summer 2022.
- The Department for Work and Pensions "will review its guidance and communications" for people with an NRPF condition and will write to the Committee within three months on the outcome.
- The Home Office does not plan to carry out a cost-benefit analysis on NRPF, saying it "would not be feasible to do so meaningfully", and does not plan to publish the NRPF Forum minutes.
- On data, the Home Office is "committed to further explore data availability" on NRPF and migrant poverty, while recognising the challenges of identifying and gathering the relevant data.