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Migrants could be stripped of access to benefits unless they become British citizens under radical new Home Office plans announced today, November 20.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the government will launch a consultation on whether welfare support should be limited strictly to full citizens, ending the automatic eligibility currently granted to foreign nationals with settled status.
Setting out the proposals in the Commons, she said settlement in Britain “is not a right but a privilege, and it must be earned,” warning that years of record migration had “placed immense pressure on local communities.”
Mahmood said the consultation “raises the question of the rights that will be provided” and “proposes that benefits might not be available to those who have settled status, reserving them instead for those who have earned British citizenship.” She described it as the toughest reform of the settlement system in nearly five decades and accused the previous Conservative administration of running an “open border experiment” that brought more than 2.6 million arrivals since 2021.
Referring to what she called the “Boris wave,” she claimed minimum salary rules were “drastically lifted” and that a programme intended to fill “as few as 6,000 care-sector posts ended up admitting 616,000 people.” She added that “over half were not even filling jobs in the sector at all, but were dependants of those who were.”
Under the government’s blueprint, the minimum wait for settlement will increase from five to 10 years. Applicants will also be assessed on English proficiency, National Insurance contributions, criminal records and debt. Only those who exceed key criteria—such as high taxpayers, global talent applicants and essential public service workers—will qualify for a shorter route. Meanwhile, anyone who has relied on the welfare system will face tougher penalties.
Migrants who have claimed benefits for less than 12 months will face a mandatory 15-year wait for settlement, while those who have claimed for longer could wait up to 20 years. Illegal entrants may face delays of up to 30 years, even if they later regularise their status.
Lower-skilled workers who entered under the post-Brexit health and care visa rules will also face a baseline 15-year wait, significantly extending the path to settlement for many already living in the UK.
Crucially, Mahmood confirmed the new rules will apply retrospectively to anyone in the UK who has not yet secured indefinite leave to remain, though she stressed that “nothing will change for those who already hold settled status.”
Defending the reforms, she said: “For those who believe migration is part of modern Britain’s story and should always continue to be, we must prove that it can still work—that those who come here contribute, play their part and enrich our national life. While each will always retain something of who they were and where they came from, they become a part of the greatest multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy in the world.”
