Reform sets out plan to end ‘plain immoral’ welfare payments to foreign nationals
David Hughes, Press Association Political Editor
Foreign nationals would be banned from claiming almost all kinds of benefits in the UK under a Reform UK government, with the party describing the current situation as “immoral”.
Reform said the measure would form part of a wider plan to save more than £50 billion a year from the welfare bill.
The ban would cover European Union nationals with settled status in the UK, something that would require Nigel Farage’s party to renegotiate the Brexit deal with Brussels and potentially mean British expatriates in the EU losing equivalent rights.
The proposal to end eligibility to benefits for foreigners would save around £21 billion annually by the fifth year of the scheme, Reform claimed.
The party had previously pledged to ban foreign nationals from claiming universal credit but the new proposals covers almost all welfare payments including housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker’s allowance, child benefit, free childcare and disability benefits.
Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert 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.
“The public have been crying out for this change for decades.
“Unlike the two old parties, Reform will deliver a system that’s fair for the British people.”
Mr Jenrick has already set out proposals to transform sickness and disability benefits with the aim of saving £22 billion from the welfare bill and he will make further announcements on Monday.
The plan to strip benefits from EU nationals with settled status in the UK would require difficult negotiations with Brussels.
Reform acknowledged that Britons living in the bloc could lose their rights to benefits as a result and they have estimated a cost of £500 million for expatriates returning to the UK and claiming welfare after losing their entitlement to support.
A Labour spokesman said: “These plans would mean ripping up the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, plunging the UK back into years of Brexit renegotiations and stripping support from potentially millions of people who have lawfully lived, worked and paid taxes in Britain for years, and in many cases decades.
“That includes people with settled status who are part of our communities, raising families, working and contributing to our economy.”
The spokesman said the “vast majority” of migrants had no access to benefits and the Labour Government was already reforming the welfare system.
‘Cobbled together’
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately dismissed the plans as “cobbled together” proposals that “will drag Britain back into Brexit battles with no certainty of success”.
She said “British people want welfare spending under control, abuse stamped out and dignity for people who are seriously disabled: serious reforms which take hard work.”
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling said: “The real way to reduce the welfare bill is to fix our NHS and social care systems, giving people the support they need to get back to work and stay there.”
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What’s immoral is Farage’s grifting.
Jenrick is a complete toad
Casually tosses aside bandwagons he has previously jumped on
This is the man who ramped up more hotels for asylum seekers
Welcpmed in Afhan refugees ‘Operation Warm Welcome’
Septermber 04 2021: ‘Welcoming Afghan refugees is a national project: We want to ensure long term integration, which is a two-way street’
‘Plain immoral’. A perfect self appraisal for Deform. ‘NEVER trust a Tory. They will always let you down’ said the former Tory stuffing his cretin club full of them. Plain immoral.
Once Farage gets the boot from parliament, this will all become irrelevant.
Funny how foreign nationals are allowed to pour money into Reform and farage on the QT.
How is the 5 million”donation” to farage going? How is the tax avoidance of Mr Tice going? How is the millions in “donations” to farage going? How is the investigation into the money that has passed from Cottrell to Farage via Cottrell mother and Tice going? Who paid for his houses.
https://www.desmog.com/2026/04/18/mapped-nigel-farage-reform-uk-money-income-donations-tracker/
A racist party looking for racist votes.
To add. What does reform and the pope that follow them think asylum seekers get? What do they think settled immigrants get?
To be lectured on morals by Reform is too ironic and just laughable. They have such a twisted view of the world I can’t wait to see the back of them. Given their way they’ll turn the UK into one huge whites only open prison. Where relations with Europe and the rest of the world is so bad, absolutely no one will want to come here and many of us will be desperate to leave but can’t!
It’s “immoral” for foreign nationals who have worked, paid taxes and contributed to society for years to receive anything but the threat of deportation in return. According to the millionaires who just can’t say no to laundered money. Lock ’em up!
What pathetic expressions, like two seagull chicks begging…
Whether there are any savings to be had will depend on how many EU nationals are in Britain compared with how many British nationals in the EU, and what proportion of these are economically active, paying taxes rather than claiming benefits. I foresee an exodus of retirees from the Costa Del Sol. There is also implications for longstanding reciprocity with Ireland, including the northern counties which are still inside the single market but for the moment part of the United Kingdom. Bad politics, a loaded soundbite to appeal to the ignorant, and bad sums. A person who is not a… Read more »
This would mean foreign nationals and their employers wouldn’t have to pay National Insurance. Workers on average salary would take home £2k more than their native colleagues on the same salary, and their employers would save £5k. This would make it more attractive to hire foreign nationals. The Boriswave would seem like a dribble.