Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 20
Seventh Report - Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds
Published 14 Apr 2022
Paragraph 71
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We are concerned that it is not cost effective for local authorities to operate their own alternative welfare system, and that support for families is inconsistent across the UK. We recommend that the Government carry out an analysis of whether it would be more cost effective for families with NRPF to have earlier access to the welfare system, and, if so, bring forward proposals along these lines. One option could be to enable local authorities to apply on behalf of families with NRPF for a change of conditions.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Seventh Report - Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds (HC 603), paragraph 71, 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.