Advising people with limited leave to remain

This page is for housing advisers. If you are a new arrival please click here for information more relevant to you.

This page covers the whole of the UK

Who does this page apply to?

This page covers housing issues affecting people granted limited leave to remain as workers, students, family members or visitors. It includes anyone, including EEA nationals, whose leave was granted under a sponsorship agreement or is subject to a 'no public funds' condition. It does not cover:

• people granted limited leave for humanitarian reasons, including those who came to the UK to claim asylum, escape war or conflict (for example, in Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan or Israel/Palestine), or because they experienced slavery or trafficking or are stateless: see advising refugees, etc., or
• people with EU pre-settled status, whose housing and benefit rights depend on their pre-Brexit free movement rights. These rights are explained on the pages on advising EEA workers, other EEA nationals and EEA family members, depending on their circumstances. If they qualified for the EU Settlement Scheme because of their relationship to a British or Irish citizen, see the page on advising British family members.

What are the housing and benefit rights of people with limited leave?

People granted limited leave to work, study, visit or join family in the UK are generally required to accommodate and support themselves without relying on public funds.

Housing legislation excludes applicants for housing or homelessness assistance who require leave to be in the UK, unless they fall within a class listed in the eligibility regulations.

Benefits legislation excludes people whose leave is subject to a ‘no public funds’ condition, except certain sponsored immigrants. This affects most people with limited leave, more than 80 per cent of whom are students or work-permit holders. The benefits regulations also exclude anyone who is not habitually resident.

Although housing and benefits legislation operates differently, it usually produces the same result: the types of limited leave that permit access to public funds broadly correspond to the eligible housing classes. Excluding categories covered elsewhere, the remaining types of limited leave that qualify for housing and benefits are:

• a person granted leave outside the Immigration Rules (LOTR) with access to public funds. This includes the partner of a British citizen or person with settled status who has been granted three months’ leave under the migrant victims of domestic abuse concession
• a person granted leave to re-enter the UK as the spouse or former spouse of a British citizen or person with settled status after being deliberately abandoned overseas (‘transnational marriage abandonment’)
• a person initially granted limited leave with no access to public funds who has successfully applied to have that condition lifted, other than a person from Hong Kong or someone granted leave on the basis of family life
• a person granted leave without a sponsor and with access to public funds under one of the following provisions of the Immigration Rules:
  • Appendix FM – a person whose right to family life is based on long residence, for example as the family member of a British citizen or settled person, or of a child who has lived in the UK for seven years
  • Paragraph 276DG – a person who applied for indefinite leave before 19 June 2022 but was refused solely because they did not meet the English language or Life in the UK requirement, or because of minor criminal offences
• a person from Hong Kong with limited leave as a British National (Overseas) who has been granted access to public funds and is habitually resident
• a person with leave granting access to public funds who left a country or territory after the UK government advised British nationals to leave or arranged an evacuation, and who applied for housing or benefits within six months of that advice or evacuation, unless the person:
  • was granted leave because of a maintenance undertaking from one or more sponsors
  • has lived in the Common Travel Area for less than five years, and
  • has at least one sponsor who is still alive.

What counts as receiving ‘public funds’?

Paragraph 6.2 of the Immigration Rules defines public funds. They include housing allocations or homelessness assistance provided by a local authority or (in Northern Ireland) the Housing Executive, and most benefits, including universal credit, state pension credit and housing benefit. If an eligible person claims one of these on behalf of an ineligible family member and receives more than they would as a single person, the ineligible person is treated as having received public funds.

Claims for benefits in mixed eligibility households

The benefit regulations largely prevent couples from receiving benefit on behalf of a partner whose leave does not allow access to public funds. If the eligible partner claims universal credit or state pension credit, the allowance for a single-person allowance is awarded instead of the couple rate. A similar rule applies to housing benefit when an eligible pension-age claimant has a working-age ineligible partner. In this case the eligible partner is allowed to claim housing benefit because single persons who are of pension age cannot receive universal credit.   

Problems may still arise if any of these benefits are claimed for an ineligible child, or in any other case where housing benefit is claimed as a couple when the eligible partner is not in receipt of universal credit or state pension credit as a single person. In these cases, the claimant receives a higher award on behalf of their ineligible partner which puts their partner’s right to remain in the UK at risk. Before claiming, seek specialist immigration advice from an approved professional or IAA-registered adviser.

Applications for social housing in mixed eligibility households

If an eligible applicant applies to a local authority or the Housing Executive for social housing with an ineligible partner, the partner cannot be offered a joint tenancy. When deciding the application’s priority, the authority:

• must not treat the applicant as homeless or threatened with homelessness if they would not be so without the presence of a ‘restricted person’, but
• may take ineligible household members into account when assessing the applicant’s housing conditions or social needs, such as an unfit home or disability.

These rules also apply when a housing association allocates a home reserved for applicants nominated by the housing authority. A restricted person is anyone without access to public funds. See housing eligibility law for details.

In Great Britain, a person with limited leave may apply directly to a housing association that has an open waiting list. This is not classed as receiving public funds, even if the homes were built with a social housing grant. An open waiting list allows the association to select at least some applicants directly, rather than reserving every home for people referred from the council’s waiting list.

In Northern Ireland, a registered housing association cannot offer a tenancy to an ineligible person.

Applications for homelessness assistance in mixed eligibility households

For mixed-eligibility households, the outcome depends on whether the eligible applicant:

• is subject to immigration control but falls within an eligible class, or
• is not subject to immigration control, usually because they are a British or Irish citizen.

In the first case, the authority must disregard any ineligible household member when deciding whether the applicant is homeless or has priority need.

In the second case, if an ineligible household member cannot access public funds, the authority treats the application as a ‘restricted case’ and will usually offer the applicant a private rented tenancy only. See the page on housing eligibility law for details.

Housing and support from social services

If a person with limited leave becomes homeless and destitute, social services may be able to accommodate vulnerable adults or families with children in certain very limited circumstances. See people with social care needs and advising people with social care needs for more on this.