The Universal Credit Review has been designed as an ongoing flexible programme of engagement, evidence gathering and policy development rather than a single review culminating in a final report. This approach has allowed the Department to respond to evidence as it emerges and take forward improvements where appropriate.

Any future changes to Universal Credit arising from the Review will be announced in line with established Government and Parliamentary processes.

The government’s proposals for settlement reform were set out in the Command Paper ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’ (CP1448) and were the subject of a public consultation between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026. The Command Paper proposed there would no longer be a separate long residence route.

We received over 200,000 responses from the public and organisations and are now considering all responses received.  This will help inform the development of the final earned settlement model.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome, including any transitional measures publicly.  This will also include both economic and equality impact assessments.

The white paper ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’, published on 12 May 2025, stated that consideration would be given to reducing financial barriers to acquiring British citizenship for young adults who have lived in the UK through their childhood. Reflecting this commitment, the fee for an application to register as a British citizen for individuals under the age of 18 was reduced from £1,214 to £1,000 on 8 April 2026.

Fees are kept under review. However, no further announcements have been made at this time.

The Home Secretary set out in the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May 2025 that the Home Office will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle. This also included a clear pathway for those children in care without status.

In light of this commitment, we are considering the specific position of migrant children in care who reach adulthood without having secured immigration status and the support currently available to help them regularise their status. We are considering appropriate safeguards for these children, through our ‘children in care’ policy, recognising that many of these children may have been unaware of their unlawful status.

A range of reforms are underway across the immigration and asylum system, and the development of a pathway to settlement for children in care without status must be considered alongside these changes.

No formal consultation will take place. Instead, we will undertake targeted engagement with external stakeholders to help us to understand the challenges in this area and develop a policy solution which supports children in care without status while upholding the need to have a robust and coherent migration system.

Any changes for this cohort will complement the existing work already undertaken by our Public Protection Specialist Safeguarding Team in relation to nationality issues.

The Home Secretary set out in the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May 2025 that the Home Office will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle. This also included a clear pathway for those children in care without status.

In light of this commitment, we are considering the specific position of migrant children in care who reach adulthood without having secured immigration status and the support currently available to help them regularise their status. We are considering appropriate safeguards for these children, through our ‘children in care’ policy, recognising that many of these children may have been unaware of their unlawful status.

A range of reforms are underway across the immigration and asylum system, and the development of a pathway to settlement for children in care without status must be considered alongside these changes.

No formal consultation will take place. Instead, we will undertake targeted engagement with external stakeholders to help us to understand the challenges in this area and develop a policy solution which supports children in care without status while upholding the need to have a robust and coherent migration system.

Any changes for this cohort will complement the existing work already undertaken by our Public Protection Specialist Safeguarding Team in relation to nationality issues.

The Child Poverty Strategy recognises that place is fundamental to child poverty, shaping the environment in which children grow up, and the opportunities parents have to provide for their children. Access to green space is a key part of this, providing opportunities for play, physical activity, social interaction and improved mental wellbeing, supporting healthier childhood development and life outcomes.

Local people know best what change is needed and empowering local areas to improve outcomes and opportunities for children is a fundamental principle of the strategy. Through the Pride in Place Programme, we will invest £5.8 billion in 284 communities over the next decade. Communities will develop plans for the future of their areas based on local priorities, which could include creating and improving green spaces.

The Pride in Place Impact Fund will also provide up to £150 million of funding to 95 places to support the development of community spaces, public spaces (including parks and playgrounds) and to revitalise local high streets. The £18 million Playgrounds Fund will improve children’s access to safe, inclusive, high‑quality local play spaces in communities where there is the greatest need.

This sits alongside Best Start Family Hubs, the Better Futures Fund and wider investment in local services and neighbourhoods.

We are taking significant action to rebalance children’s services, investing in effective early intervention to reduce the need for costly crisis support and improve outcomes for children and families. This includes investing £2.4 billion in the Families First Partnership programme, which gives families and children access to better local family help services to and supports more children and families to stay safely together.

Addressing child poverty is a key priority of this government. We will assess the contribution of this investment in early intervention services through the child poverty contextual outcome in the Local Outcomes Framework and through the monitoring and evaluation of the Child Poverty Strategy. We will continue to monitor progress against outcomes framework metrics, including the Keeping Children Safe priority outcome.

We also continue to have a dedicated child poverty team monitoring progress across government, bringing together departmental reporting and evidence on delivery and outcomes, with ministers providing oversight through the Interministerial Group on Child Poverty.

Since launching the Universal Credit Review in late 2024, we have engaged extensively with stakeholders, organisations and customers to understand better how Universal Credit is working in practice and where there may be opportunities for improvement. The Review has strengthened the Department’s evidence base and informed work across a number of policy areas where stakeholders and customers identified opportunities to improve how Universal Credit operates in practice.

We are not planning to publish a single final report, as the Review has been designed as a continuing programme of engagement, evidence gathering and policy development. This approach allows the Department to respond to evidence as it emerges and take forward improvements where appropriate.

Spending time in nature benefits health and wellbeing but use and experience of green and blue spaces varies by factors including geographical location, green space size, income and ethnicity, and further evidence is needed to understand these differences.

The Environmental Improvement Plan sets out this Government’s plans for more inclusive access to nature including delivering 9 new national river walks, investing over £1 billion in tree planting and forestry support and supporting communities most in need through the Nature Towns and Cities programme.

Assessment of access to nature is made through Defra’s Access to Green and Blue Space statistics and Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework Mapping Tool, which maps greenspace, tree cover, deprivation and environmental pressures. The Forestry Commission uses deprivation and woodland access data to target additional grant payments where benefits are most needed. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Pride in Place Programme will provide up to £5.8 billion over ten years to support neighbourhoods experiencing the highest levels of deprivation.

The Trees Programme includes a number of schemes that support urban tree planting. We know that lower urban tree cover often correlates with higher socioeconomic deprivation. England’s Community Forests (ECF) help address this by planting trees in and around urban areas; improving wellbeing, tackling climate change and creating places for nature with over 1800 Ha planted in 2025/26.

In line with development of spatial targeting, informed by the Land Use Framework, we are exploring new datasets and tools to better target new trees and woodlands, including future support for urban trees, and how to prioritise areas of deprivation.

My Lords, social security provides a safety net to support families when they need it most. This is why we have removed the two-child limit, lifting 450,000 children out of poverty, and delivered the first ever sustained rise in the standard allowance of universal credit. While important, our ambition on child poverty goes beyond social security. We are taking substantive action on the drivers of poverty by cutting the cost of essentials and making work pay.

My noble friend is right. We want to make sure that the social security system is there to support all families when they need it, while taking action to make sure that work pays. Our ambition is that social security provides a safety net where needed and that it supports families to increase income through work where possible. At the same time, the Government are committed to ensuring that welfare spending remains on a sustainable path. We set a new welfare cap at the Autumn Budget 2024 to ensure that welfare spending remains under control over the course of this Parliament. Overall, forecast welfare spending is virtually unchanged from the last OBR assessment, increasing by only 0.1% in 2029-30. Tackling child poverty requires investment, including in our social security system. The cost of failing to tackle poverty is too high, both for children and for the country. This Government are investing up front to avoid those costs of failure.

We have been deeply concerned both by this report, and the related 18 June report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

We believe that the impact of the conflict in Gaza on children is a moral outrage, and the allegations that children have been deliberately targeted by Israeli forces are deeply alarming. International law is clear that children must always be protected, and their rights upheld, and any violation of those principles must be treated with the utmost seriousness.

The Government publishes statistics annually on Child Benefit which includes detail on the trends and explanations of take-up, including the implications from the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), at: Child Benefit Statistics: annual release, August 2025 - GOV.UK

HMRC administers Child Benefit and regularly undertakes communications campaigns in press and social media to encourage people to claim. Last year, over 500,000 flyers were issued to new parents with a QR code that takes customers straight to the Child Benefit claim page on GOV.UK. HMRC also regularly runs communication campaigns and engages with partner organisations to remind families of the monetary and non-monetary benefits of claiming Child Benefit.

HMRC has also taken steps to simplify the administration of the HICBC and continues to keep these processes under review, while working to ensure that clear guidance is available so that eligible families can make informed decisions about claiming Child Benefit.

Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 places a legal duty on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for ensuring immigration, asylum, nationality and general customs functions are carried out with regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK.

This legal duty requires us to develop policy in respect of children through the lens of safeguarding, welfare as well as the best interests of children as primary (although not the only consideration), as set out in our statutory guidance.

Accordingly, as policy development continues on this government’s asylum and immigration reforms, my policy teams will complete Home Office Children’s Impact Assessments. Section 55 is a bespoke statutory duty for the Home Office, and it is not an equivalent to assessments conducted by other government departments.

Home Office Ministers have committed to complete Children’s Impact Assessments in accordance with Section 55 but have made no such commitments to complete Children’s Rights Impact Assessments.

Responsibility for age assessment sits between the Home Office and local authorities. Local authorities are required to determine whether they have obligations towards an individual under the relevant children’s legislation and the Home Office needs to establish age for immigration purposes. Both are subject to legal duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Throughout 2026, Facial Age Estimation (FAE) technology will continue to undergo rigorous testing, ahead of expected implementation in 2027 for small boat arrivals at Western Jet Foil, where quick decisions are critical. This testing is being carried out across diverse groups, including different ethnicities, genders and age ranges, indicating promising performance and accuracy. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Metrology Institute (NMI) - world leading in establishing the most accurate metrology standards, science and technology, has been commissioned to carry out the independent review of testing and trial reports produced by the Home Office.

Testing and assurance is ongoing. Equalities impacts, the impacts on children (including our duties under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009) are being considered through ongoing testing, independent analysis and policy development, in line with legal advice and public sector equality duty obligations. In addition to the introduction of FAE technology, we have also begun work to utilise the regulation-making power under section 53 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, to codify the manner in which age assessments under sections 50 and 51 of the Act must be conducted.

These regulations, which would apply to decisions made both by local authorities and the National Age Assessment Board, will enable the creation of a clear and uniform set of standards and support decision-makers to achieve greater consistency in the way age is assessed, as well as endeavouring to ensure assessments can be carried out in a more efficient, proportionate manner. The regulations will be supported by detailed guidance for those conducting these assessments and will consolidate existing best practice principles and other existing published guidance, which follow caselaw set by the courts. Existing guidance will remain relevant until subsequent guidance is published.

We are planning targeted engagement to draw on the expertise and experience of specific relevant stakeholders, including local authorities and the Department for Education, and hearing children’s voices, which will be essential to the development of the regulations and guidance.

Responsibility for age assessment sits between the Home Office and local authorities. Local authorities are required to determine whether they have obligations towards an individual under the relevant children’s legislation and the Home Office needs to establish age for immigration purposes. Both are subject to legal duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Throughout 2026, Facial Age Estimation (FAE) technology will continue to undergo rigorous testing, ahead of expected implementation in 2027 for small boat arrivals at Western Jet Foil, where quick decisions are critical. This testing is being carried out across diverse groups, including different ethnicities, genders and age ranges, indicating promising performance and accuracy. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Metrology Institute (NMI) - world leading in establishing the most accurate metrology standards, science and technology, has been commissioned to carry out the independent review of testing and trial reports produced by the Home Office.

Testing and assurance is ongoing. Equalities impacts, the impacts on children (including our duties under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009) are being considered through ongoing testing, independent analysis and policy development, in line with legal advice and public sector equality duty obligations. In addition to the introduction of FAE technology, we have also begun work to utilise the regulation-making power under section 53 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, to codify the manner in which age assessments under sections 50 and 51 of the Act must be conducted.

These regulations, which would apply to decisions made both by local authorities and the National Age Assessment Board, will enable the creation of a clear and uniform set of standards and support decision-makers to achieve greater consistency in the way age is assessed, as well as endeavouring to ensure assessments can be carried out in a more efficient, proportionate manner. The regulations will be supported by detailed guidance for those conducting these assessments and will consolidate existing best practice principles and other existing published guidance, which follow caselaw set by the courts. Existing guidance will remain relevant until subsequent guidance is published.

We are planning targeted engagement to draw on the expertise and experience of specific relevant stakeholders, including local authorities and the Department for Education, and hearing children’s voices, which will be essential to the development of the regulations and guidance.

Responsibility for age assessment sits between the Home Office and local authorities. Local authorities are required to determine whether they have obligations towards an individual under the relevant children’s legislation and the Home Office needs to establish age for immigration purposes. Both are subject to legal duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Throughout 2026, Facial Age Estimation (FAE) technology will continue to undergo rigorous testing, ahead of expected implementation in 2027 for small boat arrivals at Western Jet Foil, where quick decisions are critical. This testing is being carried out across diverse groups, including different ethnicities, genders and age ranges, indicating promising performance and accuracy. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Metrology Institute (NMI) - world leading in establishing the most accurate metrology standards, science and technology, has been commissioned to carry out the independent review of testing and trial reports produced by the Home Office.

Testing and assurance is ongoing. Equalities impacts, the impacts on children (including our duties under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009) are being considered through ongoing testing, independent analysis and policy development, in line with legal advice and public sector equality duty obligations. In addition to the introduction of FAE technology, we have also begun work to utilise the regulation-making power under section 53 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, to codify the manner in which age assessments under sections 50 and 51 of the Act must be conducted.

These regulations, which would apply to decisions made both by local authorities and the National Age Assessment Board, will enable the creation of a clear and uniform set of standards and support decision-makers to achieve greater consistency in the way age is assessed, as well as endeavouring to ensure assessments can be carried out in a more efficient, proportionate manner. The regulations will be supported by detailed guidance for those conducting these assessments and will consolidate existing best practice principles and other existing published guidance, which follow caselaw set by the courts. Existing guidance will remain relevant until subsequent guidance is published.

We are planning targeted engagement to draw on the expertise and experience of specific relevant stakeholders, including local authorities and the Department for Education, and hearing children’s voices, which will be essential to the development of the regulations and guidance.

Data relating to people receiving asylum support is published on GOV.UK as part of the immigration system statistics quarterly release. The latest information, from the year ending March 2026, is available in the data set ‘Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support’.

This data includes those in receipt of section 95 and section 4 support. Those receiving section 4 support are failed asylum seekers i.e. those whose asylum claims have been refused or declared inadmissible. The data for the period ending March 2026 shows, 4,745 people were in receipt of section 4 support. Within the published section 95 data, families with dependent children who have have had their asylum claims refused will be included, however, we do not currently publish data for the section 95 cohort by claim outcome.

The Family Returns: Reforming Asylum Support and Enforcing Family Returns consultation launched on Thursday 5 March and closed on Friday 5 June.

The Government is currently analysing the consultation responses and will issue its response on GOV.UK once the analysis has been completed.