Coordinated Response to the Home Office Consultation

kimm59
Jan 13
5 min read

Sector Briefing

Purpose

The Home Office has launched a consultation titled “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement.” The title is profoundly misleading. What is being proposed is not fair — it is one of the most restrictive overhauls of the settlement system in decades, a shift that will deepen inequality, prolong insecurity, and push already vulnerable people into further hardship.

For organisations working in migration justice, anti-poverty, health, youth, women’s rights, and community support, the implications are severe. These reforms will reshape the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who are already contributing, integrating, and rebuilding their futures. Calling these restrictions “fair” obscures the real harm they will cause to the communities we work with every day.

This moment demands a strong, coordinated response from our sector. Individually, our organisations hold vital insight. Collectively, we hold influence. This consultation provides a narrow but critical window (perhaps the only one) to shape a policy that would otherwise entrench inequality, undermine integration, and reverse years of progress. We must ensure that frontline evidence, lived experience, and the voices of our communities are heard clearly and powerfully.

We are therefore launching a unified sector response that brings together organisations across the UK to challenge these proposals and advocate for a settlement system rooted in dignity, stability, and genuine fairness.

Summary of the Government’s Proposed Changes

The consultation proposes a complete restructuring of the UK settlement* system.

*Settlement refers to a person’s right to live in the UK permanently without any immigration restrictions. It is also known as Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).

The proposed changes affect every single migrant who has not yet received their settled status/ILR.

Key changes include:

Home Office Proposal	Detail
1. Doubling the standard route to settlement	From 5 years to 10 years, with no automatic entitlement.
2. Introducing an “earned settlement” model	Settlement would depend on demonstrating economic output, volunteering, English proficiency, and other measures, making stability conditional and selective.
3. Applying punitive extensions	Additional years (5, 10, or up to 20) for: using public funds previous overstaying entering the UK irregularly entering on a visit visa
4. Removing the current 10-year long residence route	This would eliminate a vital safety net for people who have lived lawfully in the UK for a decade.
5. Individualising pathways for dependants	Partners and children would no longer automatically settle alongside the main applicant, introducing new risks of family separation and hardship.
6. Introducing a 15-year qualifying period for lower-wage workers	This disproportionately affects care workers, essential workers, women in low-paid sectors, and many migrant families.
7. Restricting access to public funds	The consultation suggests limiting access to benefits until citizenship, extending years of hardship for those already struggling under NRPF conditions.
8. Applying these rules to almost everyone already in the system	Anyone without Indefinite Leave to Remain at the time the rules change will be affected. These proposals will reshape settlement pathways for hundreds of thousands of people currently living, working, studying, and raising families in the UK.

Detrimental Impact: What We Know From Our Collective Work

Across Wales and the UK, organisations consistently see that stability, security, and belonging are the foundations for integration. The proposed reforms undermine all three.

Longer, conditional routes do not support integration — they delay it. They increase poverty, mental distress, and vulnerability to exploitation. They keep families in limbo for a decade or more. They punish people for the system’s own failures, from limited access to legal advice to flawed NRPF decisions.

Tying settlement to income embeds structural inequality: it penalises women, carers, lower-paid workers, people recovering from trauma, those with disabilities, and young adults at the start of their careers. Many of the people making the deepest social contributions would be the ones waiting the longest.

Penalties for public funds disregard the realities of life on insecure visas. People rely on support because the system forces them into precarity, not because they have failed to contribute. Linking settlement to “public cost” ignores the extensive economic and social value migrants bring.

These changes would also significantly increase pressure on third-sector organisations, who will be left to support those facing prolonged instability without additional resources.

In short: these proposals risk pulling apart the very fabric of community cohesion and integration that organisations such as ours have spent years building.

Our Proposed Response

The CAE welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Home Office’s consultation on proposals for an “earned settlement” model. As a migrant-led organisation supporting asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants across Wales, we have deep concerns about the direction and potential impact of these reforms.

We are calling the Home Office to deliver an evidence-based, compassionate policy:

1. Maintain the 5-year standard route to settlement	A 10-year route increases poverty and instability. The current 5-year pathway supports integration and family stability and should not be doubled.
2. Remove income-based and earnings-based conditions	Tying settlement to salary entrenches structural inequality. It disadvantages women, carers, disabled people, young people, and essential low-paid workers. Community involvement and social participation are also essential forms of contribution and should be valued.
3. Withdraw punitive extensions linked to public funds, overstaying, or method of entry	These penalties target vulnerability rather than wrongdoing. Using public funds or experiencing precarity should not delay settlement by 5–20 years.
4. Retain the long residence route of 10 years as an essential safeguard	This route is a vital safeguard for people who have lived lawfully in the UK for many years. Removing it would shut down one of the only accessible pathways for long-term residents.
5. Protect family unity	Dependants, especially children, must not be forced onto separate or longer routes. Families should be able to settle together.
6. Avoid retrospective application	It is fundamentally unfair to change the rules for people who are already part-way through existing settlement journeys.

These recommendations reflect what fairness should genuinely mean: stability, dignity, and equal opportunity to belong.

We urge the Home Office to ensure that the final system:

recognises trauma, lived experience, and the barriers faced by displaced communities
prioritises community contribution in all forms
engages meaningfully with migrant organisations as well as those with lived experience

What We Are Asking Organisations & Stakeholders to Do

We are mobilising a coordinated sector response to ensure that the third sector speaks with one strong voice.

We ask your organisation to:

Co-sign this sector-wide response and share any additional insights with The CAE. Responses will be shared with government officials. Please email kim.m@caentr.org.
Submit your own organisational consultation response to strengthen the evidence base.
Mobilise your communities to submit their own responses, and offer support where needed.
Share case studies and evidence illustrating how these proposals would affect the people you support.
Amplify the campaign through your networks, social media, and communications.