Social Cost Benefit Analysis of the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) policy in London

In 2021, the Greater London Authority (GLA) commissioned the London School of Economics (LSE) to conduct a robust Social Cost Benefit Analysis (SCBA) of the removal of the NRPF restriction for certain migrant groups with work related visas, and their family members. They did this by quantifying all the costs that would be imposed on central and local government as a result and quantifying all the benefits to society that would arise from giving these migrants access to public funds. The researchers employed a mixed-methods research approach that combined quantitative and qualitative techniques. The cost-benefit calculations drew on established methods for producing spreadsheet-based estimates, in money terms, of the overall costs and gains to society from a change in policy—in this case the lifting of NRPF conditions. The final report, published in March 2022, is available to download below, along with the Excel spreadsheets detailing the SCBA models.