Reform UK has pledged to bar most foreign nationals, including up to 4.5 million EU citizens granted settlement rights, from claiming almost all benefits if it enters government…reports Asian Lite News Desk
Reform UK has pledged to remove most welfare entitlements from foreign nationals, including up to 4.5 million European Union citizens with settlement rights, if it enters government.
The proposal, due to be announced by Reform treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick, would restrict almost all benefits to British citizens and apply to both new and existing claims. Foreign nationals could gain access only if they applied for and received British citizenship.
Reform estimates the restriction would save about £21 billion a year within five years. It forms part of a wider package that the party describes as the biggest welfare shake-up in a generation, with claimed annual savings of £50 billion.
The £21 billion estimate relates specifically to the proposed nationality restriction, while the £50 billion figure covers Reform’s broader welfare programme. Both are figures published by the party. The Universal Credit projection is also based on Reform forecasts.
Pensions would be excluded from the main restriction. A limited number of exemptions would allow non-UK citizens to retain contributory state pensions, Armed Forces compensation and war widows’ pensions. Reform also says no child would lose eligibility for free school meals, while foreign nationals would retain access to the NHS but face a higher health surcharge.
Access to the NHS and free school meals would therefore be treated separately from eligibility for most welfare payments under the proposal.
In a couple where only one spouse was British, only the adult citizen would remain eligible for welfare. A British child with non-citizen parents would remain eligible for child benefit.
The proposal includes EU citizens who received settlement rights in the UK under the Brexit agreement. Reform acknowledges that implementing the ban would require renegotiation of the withdrawal deal with Brussels to disapply its reciprocal benefits provisions.
Ending those arrangements would probably mean British residents in Europe who can claim benefits in their host countries would lose reciprocal rights. Reform has allocated a £500 million contingency fund to cover the possible cost of British citizens returning to the UK if their eligibility elsewhere were withdrawn. The party says 1.3 million British citizens live in the EU and anticipates that only 10 per cent would return.
Reform based part of its case on Universal Credit figures. It says more than 1.3 million foreign nationals now receive Universal Credit, up from 900,000 in 2022, and forecasts that the total will reach 1.5 million by 2029.
Jenrick said: “Forcing British workers to pay for the benefits of foreigners is not just economically illiterate but plain immoral. People are more than happy to support their neighbours in hard times, but the British taxpayer cannot afford to subsidise everyone on the planet, especially those who have not paid in.”
Reform has separately proposed scrapping indefinite leave to remain, which is a route towards citizenship, and moving long-term migrants on to five-year renewable work visas. It plans to publish detailed citizenship proposals in the coming months, but has previously said migrants would have to wait at least seven years to qualify.
Forecasts suggest that the welfare bill will rise from £333 billion to £407 billion by 2030. Reform argues that the increase could force taxes up by £54 billion. Jenrick is expected to warn in his speech that, without savings, the benefits bill will “bankrupt Britain and send taxes even higher”.
Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, criticised the proposal. She said: “Reform UK have spent months flip-flopping on the two-child cap and now they’ve rushed out a cobbled-together announcement which is already unravelling. “Their proposals will drag Britain back into Brexit battles with no certainty of success.”
