Reform proposes ban on most benefits for foreign nationals in UK
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 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.
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