Foreign nationals in the UK would be banned from claiming most types of benefits under a Reform UK government, with the party describing the current situation as 'immoral'.
Plans to save £50bn a year
Nigel Farage's party says the measure would form part of a wider plan to save more than £50 billion a year from the welfare bill.
Robert Jenrick, the party's treasury spokesperson, said the plans – to be set out in full on Monday – would be the most comprehensive overhaul to the welfare system in a generation and affect nearly three million people, who will see disability and sickness payments withdrawn or modified.
Scope of the proposed ban
Nigel Farage's party had previously pledged to ban foreign nationals from claiming universal credit but the new proposals cover almost all welfare payments including housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker's allowance, child benefit, free childcare and disability benefits.
However, opposition parties have dismissed the proposals as 'fantasy economics'.
Mr Jenrick said: “Forcing British workers to pay for the benefits of foreigners is not just economically illiterate but plain immoral.
“People are more than happy to support their neighbours in hard times, but the British taxpayer cannot afford to subsidise everyone on the planet, especially those who have not paid in.
"The public have been crying out for this change for decades. Unlike the two old parties, Reform will deliver a system that’s fair for the British people.”
Reform’s ban would cover European Union nationals with settled status in the UK, which would require difficult negotiations with Brussels and potentially mean British expatriates in the EU losing equivalent rights.
Costings and political reaction
Reform claims the proposal to end foreign nationals’ eligibility to benefits would save around £21 billion annually by the fifth year of the scheme.
On current forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the welfare bill will hit £407 billion by 2030.
In a speech on Monday, Mr Jenrick will unveil the party’s plan to 'End Benefits Britain' and warn that unless savings are made the benefits bill will 'bankrupt Britain and send taxes even higher.'
Mr Jenrick is also expected to denounce the policies of both the Tory and Labour Parties, describing them as 'two sides of the same coin'.
He will point out that when Mel Stride was Work and Pensions Secretary under the Conservative government, the non-pensions welfare bill grew 11 pc faster than inflation. This has continued under Labour with the non-pensions welfare bill expected to grow by 23 pc in real terms over this parliament.
However, a Labour spokesperson said: “Reform's £50bn claim is fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.
"Labour is already reforming welfare: narrowing the gap between Universal Credit standard and health rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing £3.5bn in employment support to end the culture of people being signed off and written off.”
The Conservative's shadow welfare secretary, Helen Whately, said: “This half-baked policy is just another Reform attempt to distract from Farage's fishy £5m and his embarrassing underperformance in his pointless by-election.”
A parliamentary standards investigation is taking place into a £5m gift given to Nigel Farage from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne before he became an MP.
The investigation was paused after Farage resigned as MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election which the Reform UK leader won last week.
