Local councils are unlawfully denying destitute children support because their parents’ immigration status is under suspicion, the Guardian can reveal. Families whose immigration status becomes insecure can quickly become destitute because they lose their right to work and access benefits. Hundreds of these families have been unlawfully denied this support since 2010 because local authorities have focused on the parents’ immigration background. In another case, a mother of three was forced to sleep in a bus shelter with her three children after Sandwell council refused her application for section 17 support. Dave Stamp, a senior caseworker at ASIRT, said children, and frequently British children, have become casualties of the “hostile environment” put in place during Theresa May’s tenure as home secretary.

Source: The Guardian May 26, 2019 13:54 UTC