Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 20 February 2026.
Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Minister of State, Home Department
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to Universal Credit – Immigration Status and Nationality Statistics to October 2025, published 11 November 2025, what plans they have to collect (1) immigration status, and (2) nationality, for those who have no nationality or immigration status recorded on digital systems.
Baroness Sherlock
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions
People who are not British or Irish can only access Universal Credit with a valid immigration status that grants them access to public funds. The Majority of temporary migrants are subject to a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition which restricts them from accessing certain public funded benefits and services.
The proportion of Universal Credit claimants with an immigration status recorded as ‘other’ or where there is no immigration status recorded on the digital system has decreased in the latest statistics (January 2026) compared with January 2025. There are no plans to change how this data is collected, although analysts are continuously looking at how we can improve the statistics.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
