[127/366] No Recourse to Public Funds

[cosmolinguist]

I got tagged on twitter so I'd see a tweet where someone's saying that No Recourse to Public Funds has been found to be unlawful. Which, yay, but every time it turned up in my mentions again because someone liked it or replied or whatever, I felt bad again and I eventually realized this evening that I was getting angry.

I was angry because the tweet said NRPF started in 2012 and it didn't. Maybe in its current form, since like so many aspects of immigration it was made worse in 2012 under Theresa May as Home Secretary. But I know it didn't start then because it was ruining my life in 2006. I feel...gaslighted actually? by this.

NRPF was alive and well when I got married and moved here in 2006. I was too mentally ill to work after the sudden death of my brother and then emigrating away from my stricken parents but I wasn't entitled to any benefits because of NRPF. Andrew, British and never even lived outside of Britain, couldn't have any benefits either, not even jobseeker's when the company he worked for went bankrupt three months into our marriage. Our two years of NRPF were a nightmare of bailiffs and meager food and worrying I'd be evicted and deported.

And something about seeing the policy related only back to 2012 just makes me crazy. It seems to invalidate all that suffering and darkness from a time that I both have very poor memories of and that has shaped my life ever since. I can't forget it but it's still hard to remember.

It makes me so proud and grateful that I was able to help one UK political party make policy about eradicating it altogether, not just taking it from its post-Theresa-May 5 years back to 2 like I suffered through. The MP introducing our immigration policy was stanning hard for "let's do the bad thing for only two years instead of five" and I proposed an amendment that said "no actually let's not do the bad thing at all"; I was a figurehead of a lot of work going on by friends and others in the party and we won, we got the votes so the Lib Dems can greet news of the suspension of NRPF with "let's never bring it back." It's cruel and evil and totally unnecessary.

Anyway, today I'm not being gaslighted, Andrew just told me it's the Guardian saying NRPF only goes back to 2012 and not 1993 and their reputation for accuracy is what got them the nickname "Grauniad." I need to get over myself but it's hard, it's a real trigger.

Comments

[barakta]

It probably doesn't help the Graun that the law firm who took the case also cites 2012, which in immigration law terms may be correct for "this version" of the EVIL cos the firm themselves are awesome. An immigration lawyer (can't be sure if friend, cos query TERFery) has been very clear that it's not Just Bastard Tories, and that Labour started the fuckery in 2002ish and beyond and did a grim but excellent overview of all those nasty changes from then. My brain has just connected this to 9/11 and capitalising on shitty things.

I am sorry this has dredged up bad memories for you. It's a disgusting policy and you did super good with libdemmery on it. The more people who say "No, this is fucking evil, no" the better.

I'm also hopeful on this judgment in that it's using the European Convention on Human Rights and I hope UKGov Home Office (who are being wankers else Twitter, basically telling a lawyer he wasn't being honest so they might get pwned for that) doesn't appeal and just shuts up and reverses their shittery.

[cosmolinguist]

the law firm who took the case also cites 2012, which in immigration law terms may be correct for "this version" of the EVIL

Ah, that's good to know (of course I didn't read the Graun piece, like five words about it was enough to put me in this state so I figured best not to!). It makes sense to fighttthe newest/current version of a law and yes the 2012 version is worse (five years of NRPF instead of two, and other things), I understand that. I just wish as you say that the narrative wasn't all "Bastard Tory governments" because it's really not just them and it has been going on a lot longer than they've been in power.

It takes a lot for the Home Office to stop trying to appeal but fingers crossed they do!

[worlds_of_smoke]

I can totally understand why it'd be a trigger. I'm sorry you're dealing with it. :(

[cosmolinguist]

Thank you. <3

[annofowlshire]

I can’t tell you how often I have to remind people that I’m not eligible for X, Y, or Z that they just assume everyone gets.

Are you still on the family visa, or do you have ILR now? (You can tell me that’s not my business, just wondering because we’re figuring out how to proceed and I’m theoretically eligible around my next renewal.)

[cosmolinguist]

I can’t tell you how often I have to remind people that I’m not eligible for X, Y, or Z that they just assume everyone gets.

Oh you don't have to tell me, I've had fourteen years of that. :) I still argue that "everyone in Britain assumes that foreign spouses of British people are automatically Britishcitizens so that's what should be happening. No one would be up in arms about it, and much unnecessary suffering could be avoided.

I had to get ILR to stay here afer my spouse visa (two years, at the time) ran out. So I got ILR in 2008. I crowdfunded the exorbitant UK ctizenship fees in 2017, terrified post-Brexit that I might otherwise be one of those people you occasionally read about (in the Guardian, actually) deported away from the spouse I'm a carer for. Like I say, the system has changed since I started being subjected to it in 2006, but if you ever want to ask questions or just have someone to comlain to or ask for sympathy from, I'm always happy to do that!

[silveradept]

It's a terrible policy that makes sure only specific people immigrate and hopefully when it gets killed, it stays dead.