Immigration Controls: Women
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether receiving statutory maternity leave will be considered receipt of public funds and impact a mother’s length of settlement route under the earned settlement model.
Answered by Mike Tapp
Proposals for introducing an earned settlement model, as set out in the Command Paper “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP1448), were subject to a public consultation, which opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026.
Contributory benefits and statutory payments are not classed as public funds for immigration purposes. As such, individuals subject to a no recourse to public funds condition but who have paid the necessary National Insurance contributions or have relevant periods of employment or self-employment can access these benefits.
As part of this consultation, we also sought views on the potential impact of the proposed changes, including whether those on maternity leave should be exempt from certain requirements.
Implementation of the earned settlement arrangements will be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.
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