Thousands of Brit-born children with migrant parents face destitution: ‘Don’t deny children their rights’

Pregnant with her third child, Favour had a letter from her private landlord in South London that she’d have to get out of the one-bed property where her family were living.

“We couldn’t pay the rent,” Favour, 43, told Big Issue. “I wasn’t working because I was taking care of my two children and my partner’s job had just finished. There was no income coming in. We were going to the food bank and relying on donations of nappies, food and money from my church and charities. I was so worried about money.”

For many families around the UK, this would have been the point that the government would have stepped in to support them to take care of their children.

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But Favour came to the UK in 2010 from Nigeria on a student visa, which included a ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF), meaning she couldn’t apply for benefits to support her British-born children.

After her student visa expired, she then applied for a family life visa, but she was refused.

“There was no way to access benefits,” she said. “And when my husband was working, his student visa only allowed him to work for 20 hours a week.”

Her lowest moment was being told in 2017, while pregnant, that she and her two children would be kicked out of their home because she couldn’t pay the rent.

“It was a difficult moment,” she said. “I felt my whole world was coming to an end. But I had to be strong for my children.”

Recent findings from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that nearly half of the children in the UK who have migrant parents are living in poverty – that’s an estimated 1.5 million children living in poverty with migrant parents.

Another harrowing statistic: 46% of migrant children live in poverty, nearly double the rate for other children.

Of those children with migrant parents living in poverty, no doubt, a good number of them will be children whose parents have no recourse to public funds.

“Shockingly, the Home Office doesn’t know how many children are affected by NRPF, let alone what proportion of them are living in poverty,” Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at migrant charity Praxis, told Big Issue.

While no official numbers exist, the IPPR and Praxis estimate that around 722,000 are affected by NRPF restrictions, of whom 382,000 are living in poverty.

“No child should not grow up in poverty, no matter where they were born, the colour of their skin, or how much their parents earn,” Whitaker-Yilmaz continued. “If we’ve decided as a society that child poverty is a scourge that must be eliminated in the 21st century, then it must be eliminated for every child, not just those with British passports.”

She said children impacted by the no recourse to public funds rule feel left out and less than their peers, that they often experience food insecurity, overcrowded housing, lower school readiness, lower educational outcomes, and serious mental and physical health risks.

While migrant families face the same socio-economic challenges that all families in the UK face, including low-paid, insecure work and a rising cost of living, they also face the constraint of a blanket ban on access to the welfare safety net – even when they pay into the system – sky high visa fees, and restrictions on access to childcare costs.

“Since last year’s general election, we’ve been pushing the government to make sure that migrant children are not forgotten in their child poverty strategy,” Whitaker-Yilmaz said. “We’ve provided evidence, and brought parents affected by NRPF together with officials. Yet while the government has acknowledged that migrant children face unique constraints, we still have no idea of what they plan to do about it.”

In June, Labour MP Oliva Blake hosted a Westminster Hall debate to highlight the wide-ranging impacts of poverty on migrant children, particularly those whose parents are NRPF.

Speaking to Big Issue, she said: “It’s so important that migrant children are at the heart of the government’s strategy because they are such a big group of children who are in poverty. It very much seems like an injustice that because of your parent’s situation, you miss out on what is meant to be there to prevent you falling into poverty.”

Blake urged the government to protect this group of children, not only for the sake of the kids’ welfare, but for local councils who step in to safeguard the welfare of families who have NRPF and are at risk of homelessness or destitution.

“The truth is that this is costing us in other places,” she said. “My council spent 1.2 million between 2023 and 2024 on supporting people with NRPF. Nationally, the average spent was £21,700 per household and a total annual cost of £33.9 million.”

In her debate, she said this places “enormous pressure on already stretched local authorities” who receive no compensation or direct funding to support families with NRPF.

By doing away with NRPF, Blake said there would be a “net benefit.”

“If restrictions were lifted for families with children, it would be a benefit of £872m over a ten-year period,” she said. “It’s just another reason to do it.”

Those on the other side of the debate might argue, according to Blake, that there are ways for families to get “out of the system” by legally challenging their NRPF condition.

“That’s very costly because quite often people need legal advice, and legal aid isn’t available to people,” she said.

Blake urged the government to extend child benefits to migrant families, expand childcare entitlement to migrant working parents, and consider if NRPF is the right way to treat families with children.

“I want to ensure this isn’t forgotten about, because so often, these children are forgotten,” she said. “I don’t think any child choose their poverty. We have a safety net system meant to be there to stop people falling into destitution and poverty. We’re one of the richest countries in the world and the fact we have so many people falling into poverty is an issue. It’s not good for anyone to have people in their communities living in abject poverty.”

Whitaker-Yilmaz agreed, saying our social security system was designed to ensure that when anyone is faced with hardship – no matter where they are from – the state offers a basic safety net to keep people out of poverty.

“Everyone has the right to be free from poverty – this is not conditional on a person’s background or where they were born,” she said. “We are talking about people who are already integral members of our communities – many have been living and working here for over a decade, and have children who are British citizens.”

It’s the government’s responsibility, she continued, to ensure no child goes to bed hungry at night, and that all children living in this country are given an equal chance to flourish.

Recently, the government announced an extension of free school meals to all children in England whose parents receive universal credit, a welcome decision by many child poverty charities and activists.

While the axing of the two-child limit has been hailed as the most effective lever the government could pull to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, it will “do nothing for the 300,000-plus children living in poverty who are affected by NRPF,” said Whitaker-Yilmaz.

The clearest solution to support children living in poverty with NRPF is to make sure every family has access to welfare safety net when needed.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Whitaker-Yilmaz. “There is no mystery about this problem. We know what the solutions are. It’s time the government chose to act.”

With the help of Praxis, Favour was able to apply for a change of conditions so that she could have access to child benefit and housing support.

With her partner finally able to find another job and with Favour able to access benefits, Favour and her family ended up being able to stay in their home.

While Favour, now on a 10-year route to settlement, rarely thinks about the impact of having NRPF has had on her as an individual, she often considers the impact it had on her children, and the many families she knows who have had NRPF conditions on their visas.

“Children shouldn’t be punished for their parent’s immigration status,” Favour concluded. “My children were born here. They should have access to benefits. Children are suffering. Adults can manage, but don’t deny children their rights.”

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