The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been urged to tighten Universal Credit rules after new data revealed that nearly 1.5 million migrants are claiming the benefit. The figures show that almost one in six Universal Credit claimants is not a British citizen, accounting for 15.6 per cent of the total 9.6 million recipients during the 12 months to December 2025.
Rise in migrant claimants
The number of migrant claimants has risen to 1,497,774, which is 197,000 more than the 1.3 million recorded the previous year. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp stated that the Tories "would ban all benefits claims by immigrants, except EU citizens with permanent settlement here."
Concerns over fiscal impact
Robert Bates, research director at CMC, warned: "This country is becoming the food bank of the world at a time when British people are seeing a decline in their quality of life. Unless the Home Secretary acts decisively to stop the ‘Boriswave’, this dire situation will descend into a full-blown fiscal crisis."
Government proposals
Ministers want to double the time it takes most migrant workers to qualify for permanent residence from five years to 10 years. However, around 40 Labour MPs have raised concerns about the impact on migrants already living in the UK, describing the retrospective approach as "un-British" and "moving the goalposts."
MPs weigh in
Birmingham MP Shabana Mahmood said the "very large number of people" arriving in the UK in an "unprecedented way" in recent years "demands an answer" from the government. Appearing before the Home Affairs Committee, she stated that settlement in the UK is a "privilege not a right" and it would be "odd" not to seek to attract the "brightest and best" workers.
Mahmood added: "I think at five years that's actually quite a short period before people can be permanently settled in the country with all of the benefits that that brings. I think it's right therefore that we extend it. In the range of proposals that we've set out, there are some things that could help bring that qualifying period down. So if you're a particularly high earner, you've come through on any of the global talent routes, you're a higher band taxpayer, you can earn that period down from 10 years to potentially three."
She further noted: "But then the reverse is true as well so if you do fall upon the state and you end up accessing benefits that can increase your qualifying period."
