Government figures have laid bare the scale of benefit claims among non-EU migrants with settled status in Britain — with analysis suggesting roughly one in four is drawing Universal Credit, fuelling Tory demands for an immediate overhaul of the system over fears the UK has become a “cash machine for the world.”
The raw numbers come from the Department for Work and Pensions, which recorded 179,482 people holding indefinite leave to remain outside the EU Settlement Scheme and on Universal Credit in December 2024. Set against the Migration Observatory‘s estimate of 720,500 non-EU citizens with settlement status at the same point, the figures point to around a quarter of that population receiving handouts.
The trajectory is what alarms critics most. Home Office projections put the number of people set to receive settled status between 2026 and 2030 at 1.6 million. Carry the current claiming rate forward and close to 400,000 of that group would be drawing Universal Credit before the decade is out — building toward a welfare bill that could approach £5.5billion annually by 2030.
Tory demands
The Conservatives want indefinite leave to remain decoupled from automatic benefit entitlement entirely, and are pushing to extend the qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten — a change the Home Office has opened for consultation.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Those with ILR should not be able to claim benefits at all, unless under the EU settlement scheme or entitled by treaty.”
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately added: “People who come to the UK should be contributing, not drawing benefits.”
Government response
Ministers insist the system is already being tightened.
“The Home Secretary recently set out new conditions to get indefinite leave to remain, including being in work, and having no criminal record,” a government spokesman said.
“We are also planning to double the standard time for migrants to settle in the UK to ten years and increasing the period of time it takes to access benefits.”