Our Lived Experience Group
The heartbeat of the partnership
No Recourse North East supports a group of around eight people with personal experience of no recourse to public funds. The group formed in June 2023 and has since met regularly, roughly every 6-8 weeks. They aim to raise awareness of NRPF and its detrimental effects, provide mutual support, and share lived-experience insights that help the partnership’s strategy, aims and work.
The experiences that the group share amongst each other and the partnership can help us shift perceptions, challenge stigma, and help inform the way we work. For those interested in understanding how we collect and use the collective experiences of the people we work with please see our consent form and lived experience story form.
Members of the group are committed to this work but remain volunteers, managing their advocacy alongside employment, family, and all that life may throw at them.
They are actively seeking to engage with local and national decision-makers, campaigners, and peers with lived experience to collaborate in the campaign against NRPF and mitigate its harmful effects.
Explore examples of their work and influence above and below!
The document sets out our approach to recognising the time, skills, and expertise of those who contribute to our activities.
It covers the voluntary nature of engagement, how expenses (travel, phone credit, childcare, lunch) are handled, and the use of thank-you vouchers (typically £25–£30 for activities such as speaking events or Lived Experience Group meetings). The policy also outlines other forms of recognition, including training, professional development support, employment references, and Home Office letters. Importantly, it addresses the implications for those on asylum support, including confirmation from the Home Office that nominal vouchers (e.g., £20–£30) do not need to be declared and will not affect support.
The group drew inspiration from the City of Sanctuary, which provided the model for this policy.
You can view the policy here.
This film, created by the No Recourse North East Partnership Lived Experience Group, who developed the content and direction of the film, and Station House Media Unit (SHMU) centres the voices of individuals and families intimately aware of the policy and its hostility, whilst importantly also providing space for members to share their resilience. If you’d like to read more, see our dedicated post.
You can watch the film at the top of this page our on our Youtube, Instagram or Facebook channels.
Members of the group provided invaluable first-hand accounts of their routes to settlement, helping shape both how we produced the response and what we included in it. Their testimony on the daily realities of the No Recourse to Public Funds condition, the toll on mental and physical health, and the barriers to housing and progression grounded our arguments in direct human impact. In this way, the Group helped ensure the submission reflected authentic, frontline experience rather than only academic or policy expertise.
You can read our response here.
Members of our Lived Experience Group attended the public sessions delivered in partnership with the GREC Language Café on 29 January, 19 February, and 19 March 2026. The focus of the sessions ranged from NRPF and the asylum system to what home means to a diverse array of participants – their lived experience illuminated each conversation.
If you would like to read more about this work, please view our ‘future article + future newsletter’.