In a report released last week, the Children's Society said that the needs of destitute and undocumented migrant children are going unmet.
You can read the 46-page report here.
The report, Making Life Impossible, says that the current support system for migrant families who are blocked from claiming benefits is failing vulnerable children, and the Children's Society fears that further restrictions on support proposed in the Immigration Bill 2015/16 could leave children homeless and put them at risk of exploitation and abuse.
The report examines the experiences of families with 'No recourse to public funds' (NRPF) who are seeking support under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, as well as those who are already living on Section 17 and the problems they continue to face even with support from the local authority.
The report's key findings are as follows:
"• Local authorities are increasingly putting barriers in place before supporting families under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, and are using new methods to reduce access to this support. This is leaving children destitute and at risk of exploitation. Data from the No Recourse to Public Funds Network – provided specially for this report – shows that only 38% of families who applied for support from their local authority under Section 17 in 20153 (because their children's welfare required it) were actually supported.
"• We estimate that there are approximately 144,000 undocumented children living in England and Wales, with the most children being located in London and the West Midlands. These children and their parents face extreme levels of destitution and risk which are multiple and varied including living in unsafe accommodation, being unable to afford food and engaging in informal sexual relationships for small amounts of money.
"• Even if families and their children do manage to receive support under Section 17 this is not the end of their problems. They still experience poverty on a daily basis, with the rates of support provided under Section 17 by local authorities varying across the country. In some circumstances this can mean these families are forced to live on less than £2 per person per day.
"• Since 2012, the Home Office has begun placing NRPF conditions on parents who have leave to remain in the UK. In the past two years over 50,000 individuals with dependants4 were given a condition of NRPF on their limited leave to remain, and our findings show a third of applications to remove these conditions are successful."
The Children's Society called on the Government to put the welfare of children first, and it called for an end to the practice of stopping families with children under 18 who have legal leave to remain in the UK from claiming benefits.
Sam Royston, Director of Policy and Research at The Children's Society, was quoted as saying: "Far too many migrant families in desperate need are already at crisis point, forced to get by on impossibly low levels of support or denied help altogether. Further restricting this support would have a devastating impact, making the lives of incredibly vulnerable children even more precarious.
"The Government must make sure that the new system focusses on the needs of the child - and not their parents' immigration status - giving families the level of support they need to keep their children healthy and safe. No child should be left facing homelessness and destitution."