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Online handbooks

Information on the benefit rules affecting people who have come to or are leaving the UK in our online handbooks:

Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook (for subscribers):

Benefits for Migrants Handbook (for subscribers):

Articles

Our most recent articles about benefits rules for migrants from our Welfare Rights Bulletin:

Tools and templates

Tools

Our tools to help you work out benefit entitlement:

Judicial pre-action protocol letter templates

Our judicial review (JR) pre-action protocol template letters for advisers relating to:

For copies of the JR template letters, advice about whether JR is the appropriate route, and for help with adapting the templates, contact our Judicial Review Project ([email protected]).

Legal test cases

Some of our recent test cases:

  • The Court of Appeal has refused the Secretary of State permission to appeal an Upper Tribunal decision which held that an EEA national with pre-settled status can, in some circumstances, rely on the benefits awarded to their UK-citizen partner to establish a right to reside as a self-sufficient person: SSWP v WV (UC) [2023] UKUT 112 (AAC), SSWP v Versnick and Another [2024] EWCA Civ 1454, 29 November 2024.
  • A Norwegian national with pre-settled status has been held to have a qualifying right to reside for the purposes of a joint claim for UC both as a self-employed person (on account of her having taken steps to set herself up as self employed at the date of her claim for UC) and as a self-sufficient person: SSWP v VB and AD [2024] UKUT 212 (AAC), 13 August 2024.
  • Destitute EU nationals with pre-settled status can rely on EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to obtain UC: SSWP v AT (AIRE Centre and IMA Intervening) [2023] EWCA Civ 1307, 8 November 2023. The Supreme Court refused the SSWP's application for permission to appeal this decision on 7 February 2024.
  • Following our successful test case regarding universal credit advances for those awaiting a national insurance number, amending regulations came into force on 1 April 2024 which reverse its effect, see:  R (Bui) v SSWP [2022] UKUT 189 (AAC); [2023] EWCA Civ 566, 25 May 2023.

Other information

More information on benefits for migrants and refugees:

Training courses

Find out about our training courses on benefits for migrants:

Early Warning System

Our Early Warning System gathers information and evidence on the impact of changes to the benefit system. Send us details of cases: