The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced new measures that will prevent migrants in the UK from receiving benefits until they become citizens. This shift means that some migrants, including those who arrive via small boats, could face waits of up to 30 years before gaining residency and access to social support.
The Refugee Council has criticized the plans, warning that they will create a costly bureaucratic system and leave vulnerable people in prolonged limbo. Enver Solomon, the council’s chief executive, expressed deep concern: “These proposals risk trapping those fleeing war and persecution in decades of instability and stress, precisely when they need certainty to rebuild their lives. Lengthy waits and repeated reviews will only increase bureaucracy and uncertainty.”
Unison’s General Secretary, Christina McAnea, highlighted the impact on essential workers: “Assessing someone’s value by their paycheck sends a harmful message to those who sustain the UK’s public services. Forcing many who stepped up during the Covid crisis to wait 15 years for security betrays the commitments made to them.”
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In Parliament, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood defended the policy, citing the unprecedented influx of arrivals in recent years. She emphasized that permanent settlement in the UK is a privilege to be earned: “I am replacing a broken immigration system with one focused on contribution, integration, and respect for British values.”
Experts have expressed concern about the policy’s implications for families. Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, warned that many families could become “mixed status,” with some members holding permanent residency and others without. Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre, described the raised eligibility threshold for benefits as “particularly dystopian,” adding that vulnerable migrant families could be unfairly punished.
Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz from migrant charity Praxis said the “earned-settlement” model would devastate countless lives and contradict economic realities. “This approach represents a retreat into a smaller, meaner England—where belonging is rationed and diversity is penalized.”
As the government pushes forward with these reforms, critics warn of the human cost and bureaucratic challenges that could define the next generation of migration policy in the UK.