We'll ban all foreign nationals from any benefits, says Reform: Party vows to cut welfare bill by £50bn - with disability cash axed for millions

By MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR Published: 00:36, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 00:40, 17 August 2026 Foreign nationals would be banned from claiming almost all benefits by a Reform government, Nigel Farage's party will announce today. It has pledged to save £21billion a year – part of £50billion in cuts to the welfare bill – by ending the 'immoral' system where British workers' taxes support citizens from overseas. It goes far further than its existing plan to cut Universal Credit for migrants, with only military veterans such as Gurkhas spared the crackdown. Even EU citizens who have settled in the UK would be stripped of their ability to claim welfare payments such as jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit, the party said, which would mean ripping up the Brexit deal. Reform said it would set aside £500million for expats who may have to return to the UK and start claiming benefits in the likely event of Brussels retaliating and ordering out the swathes who live on the continent. Robert Jenrick, the party's pick for chancellor, warned last night that, without urgent action, the benefits bill – forecast to hit £407billion by 2030 – will 'bankrupt Britain'. 'Forcing British workers to pay for the benefits of foreigners is not just economically illiterate but plain immoral,' he said. 'People are more than happy to support their neighbours in hard times, but the British taxpayer cannot afford to subsidise everyone on the planet.' Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, with party leader Nigel Farage He added: '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.' In a speech today Mr Jenrick will give details of the ban as part of a wider plan to 'end benefits Britain'. The proposals, to be set out in a 50-page paper, also include saving £22billion by removing or cutting disability benefits for almost 3million people. A Reform government would abolish Personal Independence Payments (PIP), as well as the health element of Universal Credit for working-age adults, replacing it with a health security allowance. Only those with severe disabilities would get cash, with others getting support through councils instead. Employers would have to pay an insurance called Return to Work Cover for staff signed off for longer than statutory sick pay allows. The total savings proposed are more than double the £23billion the Tories say they would cut from the welfare bill, which include restricting sickness benefits to British citizens but which would not affect Europeans who have settled here. Mr Jenrick, announcing the party's first new policy since Mr Farage was re-elected in the Clacton by-election, will likely face claims he is scrambling to be more hardline than his former party in order to revive Reform's standing in the polls amid a Tory revival. Mr Farage has been accused by the Tories of being soft on welfare after he previously supported lifting the two-child benefit cap, before a U-turn. Mr Jenrick warned the benefits bill will 'bankrupt Britain' if it is not reformed Helen Whately, Tory work and pensions spokesman, said Reform 'rushed out a cobbled-together announcement' and their proposals 'will drag Britain back into Brexit battles with no certainty or success'. A Labour spokesman added: 'These plans would mean ripping up the UK's withdrawal agreement with the EU, plunging the UK back into years of Brexit renegotiations and stripping support from potentially millions of people who have lawfully lived, worked and paid taxes in Britain for years, in many cases decades.' Reform said the UK spent £55billion on benefits for foreign nationals, mostly migrants with indefinite leave to remain or EU settled status, between April 2022 and February 2026. Its paper claimed 1.3million foreign nationals get Universal Credit. Under its plan, they would no longer be able to claim it, nor housing benefit, jobseeker's allowance, tax-free childcare or child benefit. But British citizens married to foreign spouses would retain their eligibility to benefits. Foreign pensioners with sufficient National Insurance contributions would also be able to claim the State Pension. Reform said its plan would save £21billion by its fifth year and £24billion by its eighth.