Under section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, most immigration categories have the requirement that the individuals granted leave to enter or remain have no recourse to public funds. This means that immigrants will not be able to claim most welfare benefits provided by the Government.
Paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules defines the meaning of public funds and includes welfare benefits as public funds for restriction. For convenience, the Home Office published the following list of welfare benefits on their website:
- Income-based jobseeker’s allowance
- Income support
- Child tax credit
- Universal credit
- Working tax credit
- Social fund payment
- Child benefit
- Housing benefit
- Council tax benefit
- Council tax reduction
- Domestic rate relief (Northern Ireland)
- State pension credit
- Attendance allowance
- Severe disablement allowance
- Personal independence payment
- Carer’s allowance
- Disability living allowance
- Allocation of local authority housing
- Local authority homelessness assistance
For your information, you can access the list via the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-funds–2/public-funds
The Home Office clearly states that if applicants receive public funds, their applications will be refused unless any of the exceptions apply. However, before claiming for any benefits, we strongly recommend applicants to check whether they are allowed to receive them under their immigration statuses. Moreover, it is advisable by the Home Office to contact the relevant department responsible for a particular benefit, such as the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue & Customs.
Should you wish to discuss your immigration matter, please do not hesitate to contact our professional team of immigration lawyers at barar.london@bararassociates.co.uk or call us on 020 7487 8370. You can access more information about us via https://bararassociates.com/.
