Migrant benefits crackdown abandoned as Shabana Mahmood drops plans to block welfare access

Shabana Mahmood has dropped her original plans to bar migrants from claiming benefits after securing permanent residency. The Home Secretary's consultation on the matter floated the idea of making them wait until they have British citizenship to access welfare. However, in the final policy package published today, the Home Office confirmed that individuals granted permanent settlement will continue to have full access to public funds and welfare, as they do now. Official documentation on the reforms says: "The consultation seeks views on whether the law should be changed so that it would be possible to make settlement subject to a 'no recourse to public funds' condition. "The Government believes that the development of an earned settlement system should include a reassessment of the benefits accruing to settlement and where the accrual of those benefits might in future sit in the journey to settlement and citizenship, respectively. "Under this option, new migrants granted settlement would continue to be unable to access specified benefits in line with existing visa conditions. This would have the effect of shifting the default position on access to benefits to citizenship rather than settlement." It departs from the initial November 2025 consultation framework, which suggested that access to the welfare state and social housing would be stripped from ILR status and reserved exclusively for those who went on to become full British citizens. The U-turn comes amid Ms Mahmood's newly announced immigration reforms, which have reduced the amount of time needed for foreign workers to claim indefinite leave to remain (ILR). She has announced a "five-year path" to settlement, open to workers on a salary of more than £50,000 a year, those who have contributed to healthcare and education, and refugees who come to the UK via "safe and legal routes". The Home Secretary hailed the reforms as a "fair solution to recognise service from foreign care workers". She said her legislation "must address both sides of this, recognising the service of those who cared for our sick and elderly at a time of immense national need, and also addressing the abuse that was present on this route". The consultation on the reforms was answered by less than 20 per cent of British citizens. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS Some 18 per cent of the 202,000 people who responded to the consultation were citizens. Three quarters of participants were "current visa holders". Criticising Ms Mahmood's reforms, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said her "tough reputation" on illegal migration had been "dismantled in 12 short minutes". He told the House of Commons: "That is the cost of today’s U-turn – £10billion. And outside of care workers, many of the so-called highly skilled workers recently arrived are not highly skilled at all. "It took a year for the Home Secretary to build her reputation as tough on immigration. But what took a year to build, she has just dismantled in 12 short minutes." Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of "letting down" Ms Mahmood by "watering down" her reforms. He said at a London press conference: "This is so typical of the Burnham premiership - I have literally no idea what he stands for. Everything he said at Makerfield, not reopening arguments about Brexit, backing up in principle, Mahmood kicking the can down the road, at least better than nothing on ILR. "He's cut bus fares, I grant you that, but in the first hundred days, it's very difficult to work out exactly what this Prime Minister is. It is perfectly clear that mass migration is making us poorer, making us economically poorer, making us culturally poorer, and it has become a disaster. "The fact is, this Prime Minister has completely let down his home Secretary. Has absolutely backed off on legal immigration, on illegal immigration, he has no plan to stop it whatsoever. And now he wants to even contemplate free movement." Follow related topics: