Overview

• Reform UK proposes abolishing indefinite leave to remain, rescinding existing settled status and replacing it with five‑year renewable visas that carry higher salary and English requirements, tighter family rules and no access to most benefits or free NHS services.
• Nigel Farage insists the savings would exceed £230 billion, but the Centre for Policy Studies says its earlier lifetime estimate should not be used following Office for Budget Responsibility data changes.
• The party says EU citizens with settled status would be exempt from the welfare ban and ILR changes, while signalling a bid to reopen talks with the EU over benefit rights.
• Reform cites roughly 800,000 people becoming eligible for ILR in the next few years, has previously pointed to larger post‑pandemic cohorts, and proposes extending the wait for citizenship to seven years with a requirement to renounce other nationality.
• Labour, Conservatives, Sadiq Khan, trade unions and sector figures label the plan unworkable and risky for services such as health and social care, with some warning of Windrush‑style harms and noting Reform has not set key thresholds or timelines.