Reform UK Plans to Ban Foreign Nationals from Most Benefits, Including EU Citizens

The UK opposition party Reform UK has unveiled plans to exclude foreign nationals from almost all welfare payments if it ever enters government, part of what it calls a sweeping overhaul of Britain's benefits system worth £50 billion a year in savings.

The ban would apply to European Union nationals with settled status in the UK — people who generally have lived in the country for at least five continuous years and have an indefinite right to remain. Because EU settled status residents currently hold the same entitlements as British citizens under the Brexit withdrawal agreement, implementing the policy would require renegotiating that deal with Brussels.

Reform has acknowledged the EU might retaliate, potentially stripping British expats living in Europe of equivalent rights. The party says it has budgeted £500 million to cover the potential cost of expats returning home to claim benefits.

The plans were announced ahead of a formal speech by Reform's shadow chancellor Robert Jenrick, who described forcing British workers to subsidise foreign nationals as "economically illiterate" and "plain immoral."

Labour dismissed the proposals as impractical, arguing that the "vast majority" of migrants cannot access benefits anyway, while the Conservatives called the plans "cobbled together." The government spends around £322 billion annually on welfare in Great Britain, more than half of which goes to pensioners.

The announcement also included plans to replace the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) disability benefits system and to ban foreign nationals from housing benefit, jobseeker's allowance, child benefit, free childcare, and pension credit, with limited exceptions including war widows' pensions.