A football-loving 5-year-old boy is this week taking the Home Office to court, arguing that NRPF discriminates on grounds of race, by denying families like his access to the welfare safety net, and is putting children at risk of destitution.
The boy was born in the UK, and is being supported in the legal challenge by his Zimbabwean-born mother, who came to the UK in 2004 and has leave to remain here.
Mother and son are not being named, and can only be identified as VW and ST, respectively.
The case is being heard in the high court on 17 and 18 March, with Deighton Pierce Glynn acting for the family. The challenge is being supported by The Unity Project, a charity which works with people in desperate financial difficulties because of NRPF.
Lawyers for the family will argue that the Home Office’s NRPF policy is unlawful because it denies children with migrant parents protection from homelessness, hunger, and destitution; and breaches the Equality Act 2010, by discriminating against black British children, treating them less favourably than their white counterparts.
In papers filed with the court, the Home Secretary accepts that 80% of migrants subjected to NRPF are Asian or African, and also admits that her department does not collect data in relation to the race of those affected by the policy.
ST and VW’s lawyers will tell the court that, by failing to monitor the impact of NRPF on people of colour, the Home Secretary is in breach of her legal duty to promote equality; and is failing to assess ‘the differential impacts of the policy on British children of foreign parents, on non-white British children and on single mothers and their children’.
Adam Hundt, partner at Deighton Pierce Glynn, says:
‘This policy is creating an underclass of black British children, which is outrageous. The only reason ST, the 5-year-old boy in this case, is being treated differently from his white friends is because his mum came to the UK from somewhere else. We are asking the court for the policy to be quashed and for a public inquiry into NRPF.’
This is the latest in a series of legal challenges to the government’s NRPF policy, which was rolled out in 2012 as part of the hostile environment. In May 2020, in the case of ‘W’, an 8-year-old British boy, who had been street homeless with his mother, won his case against the Home Office over NRPF. The judges ruled in the case that the NRPF policy must be changed so that people are given access to public funds before they fall into destitution, rather than only being eligible once they have actually become destitute. Since then, the Home Office has made only small changes to the way it imposes NRPF, meaning many families have been left in poverty during the pandemic – highlighting the need for further legal challenges to be brought.
The Unity Project helps people through the complex process of applying to the Home Office to have NRPF lifted and be given access to state support which is available to other low-income families.
Caz Hattam, co-founder of The Unity Project, says:
‘The government says NRPF is intended to promote integration, but instead it is making existing inequality and discrimination worse, particularly for black children born in the UK. Many of the people we assist are keyworkers, often doing social care or cleaning jobs, and paying taxes and national insurance, like everyone else – but they are denied the same vital state support as other families. Despite the earlier successful legal challenge to NRPF, the policy continues to mean that children are growing up in the UK without a home or enough to eat. If the government really cares about integration, it should scrap this policy.’
About the case:
VW was a keyworker prior to the pandemic, supporting teenagers and young adults. However, she was forced to stop working last year after being unable to find childcare for her son when his school hours were cut during lockdown. She was homeless at times during her pregnancy, but the family are now happily settled in suitable accommodation, close to ST’s school. VW describes her son as ‘a very shy boy, who has just started to come out of his shell. He enjoys football, which I like, and computer games, which I don’t like so much.’
The judgement is not expected immediately, and it may be a couple of months before we have a decision. We will update this page as soon as it is published.
For advice and support in relation to the NRPF condition, contact The Unity Project.