This inspection examined the Home Office's management of fee waiver applications for certain types of immigration and citizenship applications.
The ability to apply for a fee waiver is an important safeguard for those people who are seeking to make a human rights-based application to enter or remain in the UK, and for children seeking to register as a British Citizen, but who are unable to afford the fees. I was already aware of concerns about the scale of the Home Office fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), and stakeholders drew my attention to additional costs, such as solicitors' fees and biometric enrolment, which have meant that many applicants have incurred large debts and that their lives, including their health and wellbeing, have been adversely impacted.
This inspection was conducted against that backdrop. It focused on the resourcing of the three Home Office teams responsible for handling fee waiver applications; on training, workflow, and the prioritisation of fee waiver casework; and on the quality, timeliness and consistency of decision making, including the quality assurance of decisions.
The ICIBI last looked at fee waivers in 2019, since when the 'test' the Home Office applies to a fee waiver application has changed from whether the applicant is or would become destitute to whether they can afford to pay the required amounts. This inspection therefore looked at the guidance available to caseworkers when determining 'affordability' to see if was clear and also examined whether 'affordability' was being assessed consistently.
Inspectors found problems with both the guidance and practice, and my report, which was sent to the Home Secretary on 21 January 2025, contains eight recommendations covering: better workforce planning; regular sharing of information and best practice; more robust quality assurance; more clearly defined management responsibilities and expectations; a review of data retention practices; ensuring significant changes to fee waiver policies and practice are compliant with the Home Office's Public Sector Equality Duty; the introduction of Service Level Agreements for the processing of fee waiver applications; and development of an engagement strategy for external stakeholders.
I am pleased that the Home Office has responded constructively to each of the recommendations, accepting five of them in full. In the case of the three partially accepted recommendations, the department has accepted the thrust of the recommendation but with caveats around how best to implement it and timescales. ICIBI will look forward to receiving updates on progress.
In making my recommendations I drew attention to a number of underlying issues - shortages of trained and experienced staff, problems with record-keeping and with the quality and timeliness of decisions, the management of backlogs, silo working, poor communication and engagement - that go much wider than the Home Office's fee waiver functions and are mostly both long-running and systemic. I indicated that I was looking to the Home Office to reflect on the recommendations and to adapt and implement them wherever else within the Migration and Borders System they are relevant. The formal response does not refer to this, though I believe that the message has been received and my inspectors will be looking for evidence of this as they go about their work on current and future inspections.
David Bolt, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
20 March 2025
