"London housing benefit claimant numbers soaring..." - The Guardian

Optimist

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yes.

That's the whole point of the EU. UK citizens can move to any member country and receive the same services and benefits as a native born citizen, just as they can here.

Why would you even wonder such a thing?

True but the benefits system is very different in Europe and in most case certainly not as generous as the UK. For example in Portugal you have to have paid tax for a minimum of 15 months before entitlement and even then benefits are temporary.

As for Germany, for unemployment benefit unless it has changed you need to have worked for 12 months before you can claim. You claim unemployment insurance for 12 months which is a percentage of your previous salary after which you go onto unemployment assistance. This is means tested and somewhat lower than UI

You also have 4 months in which you can apply for jobs of the equivalent skill level as the previous job after which any job of a lower skill is deemed to be suitable.

michaels

Whereas you can spend your way out of a deficit?!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Shocker.
Who could possibly have predicted that.

The only cure to any of these problems is economic growth. And you can't cut your way out of a recession.

hethmar

Migration Watch have added a new petition to get the government to seriously debate the issue of immigration and the disastrous consequences of lack of control.

To add your signature: (apologies in advance to anyone who feels this is not a matter worth debating, but for the rest of us):


https://submissions.epetitions.direc...etitions/19658

No to 70 million

Responsible department: Home Office
Over the past ten years the government has permitted mass immigration despite very strong public opposition reflected in numerous opinion polls. We express our deep concern that, according to official figures, the population of the UK is expected to reach 70 million within 20 years with two thirds of the increase due to immigration. While we recognise the benefits that properly controlled immigration could bring to our economy and society, this population increase, which is the equivalent of building seven cities the size of Birmingham, will have a huge impact both on our quality of life and on our public services yet the public has never been consulted. So we call on the government to take all necessary steps to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise our population as close to the present level as possible and, certainly, well below 70 million."

Realmoney_2

drc wrote: »

Yes, they probably were a really nice family but it's just crazy that they can come here, work as cleaners and be entitled to so much in benefits.

Well what is messed up is how high the rents have been pushed up purely because the government is paying so much for low income families to live there.

There is no doubt what so ever. If house benefit was not paying out such then rents and house prices would not be propped up so high.

Going4TheDream

Realmoney wrote: »

Well what is messed up is how high the rents have been pushed up purely because the government is paying so much for low income families to live there.

There is no doubt what so ever. If house benefit was not paying out such then rents and house prices would not be propped up so high.

So what is the solution?

Either companies have to pay more to employees? Unlikely

Or we see people who do often necessary jobs pushed out of the expensive high rent areas? Possibly? But then will rents in the areas they move to raise due to supply and demand?

Who then will do the lower paid jobs?

Society needs certain services, cleaners to clean buildings and streets. Shop workers to sell the food, etc, bus drivers, administration functions etc etc etc

I have seen the 'apartheid' in South Africa first hand where the poor low paid often travel one or two hours to get to their jobs as they cannot afford to live in the areas they work. They spend a high portion of their low wages on travel alone?

The_White_Horse

there is a really easy solution to all this. Stop paying housing benefit. easy.

the best way to achieve this is sell all existing council estates to private builders and let them build what ever they like there. with the money, you build huge estates in the middle of nowhere, only containing bedsits, 2 bedroom flats and large dorms. elderly people can have the bedsits, young singles (ie NOT MARRIED) can share the dorms with a random people - and those who are married with children will get the 2 bedroom flats. if these idiots decide to have 4 or 5 kids, they stay in the 2 bedroom flat because that is all they can have. If they want a bigger flat or house, they can buy their own or rent it. unmarried parents can live in the dorms with other people. to qualify for 2 bedroom status, you have to have conceived your child in wedlock. this way, sl@gs get nothing, but decent people whose husband has died or walked out, can still have the benefit. however, if the husband leaves due to the woman's infedelity, she is out.

Sapphire

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Lucky for you then that previous generations in this country did not display the same Xenophobic intolerance you do.

Here we go – predictable response. (Took you a while to come back on that one didn't it?)

For your information, my parents were political exiles due to agreements reached between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt at the end of the Second World War, despite having fought courageously for the liberation of their country (and for your freedom as well), and endured extremely severe hardship, to say the least. They did not want to be here, but certainly my grandfather and father would have been killed had they gone back. They were also part of a relatively small group of armed forces that settled here – nothing like the scale or type of economic migration there is now.

My parents did not come here to claim benefits, then return to their country with a large pot of money that continued to be increased courtesy of the British taxpayer. I cannot think of anyone of my parents' or my generation who is in any way parasitic on this country. They all built their lives from nothing, having lost everything during the war, and despite the fact that they did not know the English language, in many case had post-traumatic stress, had lost close kin and/or been wounded, and/or been in German POW camps for a year or more.

Also for your information, I think the population of Britain was more xenophobic, not less, when my parents came here (though they themselves have never experienced anything akin to 'racism'). And there were far stricter controls on immigration at that time.

Idiot.

lynzpower

My parents did not come here to claim benefits, then return to their country with a large pot of money that continued to be increased courtesy of the British taxpayer. I cannot think of anyone of my parents' or my generation who are in any way parasitic on this country – they all built their lives from nothing, having lost everything during the war.

any people who come here from Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan Congo Iran are also escaping wars. Why are your parents more important than them?

hethmar

I think the point is when Sapphire's parents came here we had a lot more room! and a lot less social security benefits being paid out.

The whole point is not that we are foreigner bashing but we are trying to retain some order in this country - do you really want the whole system to fail totally?

And Im sorry, but not all immigrants are escaping from wars and persecution

Sapphire

hethmar wrote: »

I think the point is when Sapphire's parents came here we had a lot more room! and a lot less social security benefits being paid out.

The whole point is not that we are foreigner bashing but we are trying to retain some order in this country - do you really want the whole system to fail totally?

And Im sorry, but not all immigrants are escaping from wars and persecution

Far from it – in relation to your third para. Were that to be the case we would be able to absorb them quite easily, as we have over the centuries. It's economic immigration/migration that is causing the problems for British taxpayers, for reasons that have already been spelled out in this thread.