Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is unveiling a shake-up to rules for legal migration just days after announcing reforms to the asylum system.
Mahmood said: “To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege. And it must be earned.”
Speaking in the Commons to launch Labour’s new consultation on settlement, Mahmood said ministers were considering restricting benefits to British citizens.
Referring to the white paper, she said: “It proposes that benefits might not be available to those who have settled status, reserving them instead for those who have earned British citizenship.”
File photograph of Lunar House, the headquarters of UK Visas and Immigration
The plan for “earned” settlement and doubling the wait time before being eligible for long-term status was first announced under the Government’s immigration white paper in May and could come in as soon as April.
Migrants will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK after 10 years, instead of five years currently, as a base.
Mahmood said that “crucially”, while the rights of people who already have settled status would be unchanged, those yet to reach that milestone would be required to meet the new criteria as soon as it is introduced.
But the Government said there will be ways for residents to qualify for settlement faster through a new contribution-based model, such as by volunteering in the local community, having a high level of English and not being on benefits.
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And settlement could take longer under certain circumstances, such as if a person has claimed benefits, if they came as an asylum seeker, or by illegal means.
Plans to force immigrants to volunteer have already been met with fierce opposition from charities.
More than 300 organisations have written to the UK Government saying they will not comply with the plans, saying it constituted “an exploitation of volunteering that we cannot accept”.
Speaking in the Commons on Thursday, Mahmood said that the new measures would not apply to people with indefinite leave to remain or people who have benefitted from the EU settlement scheme.
She told MPs that people who can speak English to a degree level standard would reduce their qualifying period for settlement to nine years. Those who pay the higher rate of income tax would see the qualifying period fall to five years or three years for those in the top bracket.
Labour’s frontbench pictured at the party’s conference
Public sector workers would be able to qualify for settlement in five years, and people who can prove they volunteer could qualify in five to seven years, under the proposed regime.
But it would be brought up to 15 years if someone has claimed benefits for less than 12 months, and hiked again to 20 years if they have claimed benefits for longer than this.
Stricter again are the proposed rules for people who entered Britain as asylum seekers or through illegal means. If someone arrived in the country illegally, they would face a 30-year wait for settlement and 20 years if they are a “core protection” refugee.
Labour are undertaking the largest overhaul of Britain’s immigration system in generations.
Measures announced earlier in the week would see refugee status become temporary, and the Government has proposed deporting people if it considers that their home countries are now safe.
Plans are also in the works to deport children born in the UK if their parents are asylum seekers, and ministers have defended proposals to confiscate jewellery from people fleeing war and persecution.