The Unity Project

Who we are

The Unity Project is a small charity that supports people with ‘Change of Conditions’ (CoC) applications required for access to public funds. We want everyone living in the UK to have equal access to the welfare system. We exist to challenge the 'no recourse to public funds' (NRPF) policy in order to end it and, until then, minimise its impact.

We run weekly casework sessions where we support people with NRPF to make ‘Change of Conditions’ applications for recourse to public funds. This means that they can access the welfare safety net in times of hardship.

We seek lasting policy change by engaging with Home Office officials and MPs, and through strategic litigation when it’s necessary.  We’ve supported several major legal challenges to the NRPF policy, after the Home Office unlawfully denied people access to public funds. The resulting judgements have not only granted individuals recourse to public funds, but also forced through changes in the immigration rules and policy guidance.  In the context of the overall NRPF policy, each change has been small, but together they have significantly impacted the Change of Conditions process. 

Finally, we are developing an evidence base about the impact of no recourse to public funds. We want to use our expertise to build a strong, well-informed opposition which can campaign effectively for policy change.

Our culture and values

We aim to be:
 

• Representative of and accountable to people who are navigating or have navigated the systems we want to change.
   

• Sustainable, so we can continue our work as long as it is needed.
   

• Trauma informed, recognising the impact of prior traumatic experiences and promoting an organisational culture which is safe, transparent, collaborative and responds empathically to each individual’s needs.
   

• Rooted in community, as we believe that strength comes from relationships of solidarity and mutual support.
   

• Equitable to all who give their time to the project.
   

• Tenacious, innovative, reflective and adaptable in our casework.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We don’t want a project like ours to be necessary. The NRPF condition is both a consequence and a cause of discrimination in the UK and it needs to end. We acknowledge that this may not happen quickly, however we seek to exist only as long as we’re needed.

We see NRPF as one of many overlapping systems of structural injustice, which also include race, class, gender, immigration status and others. The decisions we make – such as in our pay policy, recruitment and support for staff or volunteers – are motivated by the ambition to dismantle structures of oppression wherever they appear around us and in our organisation.

Much of the work that we do as a project is volunteer-led. We recognise that relying on unpaid or under-paid work can exclude people from participating in projects like ours. We seek to address this by:

• Paying our staff a living wage, calculated according to the real cost of living for a family.
   
• Offering paid opportunities when volunteers provide time above their agreed commitment.
   
• Covering expenses like travel and childcare to make volunteering as accessible as possible.