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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