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Migrants free to claim full benefits
Mr_Mumble
Posts: 1,758 Forumite
Front page lead story at The Times (paywalled direct link)
Labour said only 13,000 eastern Europeans would come to work here. Out by a factor 200? It's mind-boggling to wonder how big an incentive of up to £250pw to NOT work will be! Is there anything stopping millions of eastern Europeans from coming here and demanding emergency housing from 'their' local council asap? Another win for landlords and another loss for tenants?
The rest of the article is your usual anti/pro migration figureheads saying the usual things (big business = t'is good, 'uman rights = t'is good, migrationwatch = t'is bad).More than 100,000 Eastern European migrants will be able to claim tens of millions of pounds in benefits in Britain as the Government is forced to scrap safeguards imposed seven years ago.
The ending of the restrictions on access to key benefits will happen within weeks as ministers have conceded that they are powerless to prevent the change.
The migrants, from countries including Poland and the Czech Republic, will become eligible to claim jobseeker’s allowance, council tax benefit and housing benefit from May, when a special scheme introduced under EU rules in 2004 is abolished.
The admission comes as latest figures show a rise in the number of migrants from former Soviet bloc states seeking work in Britain.
There is nervousness in Whitehall about the impact on the benefits bill and the potential for abuse once the restrictions end. Any nationals from the eight states will be able to access the three benefits as long as they can prove to officials that they have done some work here, are seeking more work and intend to live here. Taken together the three benefits could be worth up to £250 a week per person.
Labour said only 13,000 eastern Europeans would come to work here. Out by a factor 200? It's mind-boggling to wonder how big an incentive of up to £250pw to NOT work will be! Is there anything stopping millions of eastern Europeans from coming here and demanding emergency housing from 'their' local council asap? Another win for landlords and another loss for tenants?
"The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat, 1848.
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Comments
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Praise be the Lord the BTL landlords are saved......0
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Yes, the only good thing about this is it will keep house prices rising. Even that doesn't cheer me up reading the article. We are sitting ducks in the UK. No other country would be stupid enough to offer this.We love Sarah O Grady0
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You are free to travel anywhere else and to claim benefits.Yes, the only good thing about this is it will keep house prices rising. Even that doesn't cheer me up reading the article. We are sitting ducks in the UK. No other country would be stupid enough to offer this.
If the UK Government were so stupid to sanction this then its their fault, Labour was with their social engineering mandate lol
Looks like the Poles are getting their own back for being screwed over in the past, I'm all for it and maybe make a profit out of it0 -
The poles I know wouldn't dream of claiming benefits. Many of them are looking to leave Britain for other places.
Norway seems to rank highly among the chosen destinations for some reason.0 -
Can't see the usual frothing at the mouth reaction because its not a Mail article,its the Times so it must be right .
What I don't understand is that Child Benefit appears to be have been claimable not long after Eastern Europeans started coming here to work -hence the furore over child benefit being paid to kids that dont even live here0 -
Erm....why can't they just start a new special scheme?
Can't imagine France doing anything but sticking two fingers up to this kind of thing, why do we have to be so different?0 -
Graham_Devon wrote: »Erm....why can't they just start a new special scheme?
Can't imagine France doing anything but sticking two fingers up to this kind of thing, why do we have to be so different?
Presumably it would mean everybody being on an equal footing and those already in receipt of said benefits losing out0 -
Doesn't such expenditure get claimed back via the EU ?......"An arrogant and self-righteous Guardian reading tvv@t".
!!!!!! is all that about?0 -
[quote=[Deleted User];41675406]The poles I know wouldn't dream of claiming benefits. Many of them are looking to leave Britain for other places.
Norway seems to rank highly among the chosen destinations for some reason.[/QUOTE]
I agree. The Poles are very hard workers0 -
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