Reform UK benefits ban for foreign nationals would include EU citizens

Foreign nationals would be excluded from most benefits under a Reform UK government, the party has said.

The ban, part of a proposed overhaul of Britain’s benefits system, would include European Union (EU) nationals with settled status in the UK, meaning a renegotiation of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU.

In a speech on Monday, the party’s economy spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said: “The British taxpayer is acting as the welfare state for the world. That’s unfair, we all know it.”

Reform claims the policy would save £21bn a year by its fifth year, but Labour insists the “vast majority” of migrants have no access to benefits and the Conservatives have dismissed the plans as “cobbled together”.

Jenrick said there had to be a change of approach to “restore fairness” to the welfare system.

He said one-in-six Universal Credit claimants are not a British or Irish citizen and suggested the money should instead be used to “make the lives of British people better”.

This year the government expects, external to spend a total of £322bn on welfare in Great Britain, or 10.6% of GDP, just over half of which goes to pensioners.

Reform says it has spent six months drawing up a 50-page plan that it claims will save a total of £50bn a year.

Jenrick said the proposals also include a “welfare to work” scheme which will require people who have claimed benefits for more than 12 months to provide 20 hours-a-week of work for their community.

This would apply to those deemed fit to work and will be organised by their local council, the MP said.

Those who fail to take part or poorly perform will face sanctions, including potential cuts to their benefits, according to Reform’s policy document.

Jenrick said: “They’ll work to clean up high streets and parks, to beautify neglected places, to carry out minor repairs to staff libraries and community centres, to perform many other tasks from the list that we’ve published today.”

In an interview with the BBC, Jenrick would not say how many people would lose access to benefits but insisted his party would treat people claiming benefits “with respect and dignity”.

“Those who need them, under a Reform government, will continue to receive them but those people who are shirking, who are taking advantage, they will be reassessed and they will be helped back into the workplace.

“That is the right and fair thing to do.”