David Cameron sets out EU reform goals

BobQ

nowakee wrote: »

The four year wait for work benefits are very easy to achieve. Give out a tax number (UTR or NI) immediately with birth, on the provisional birth certificate, like the "person number" in Scandinavian countries. Put any waiting period for in-work benefits on this (anything from zero to 16 years). No native will effected.

Any migrant gets it like they do now when they apply for the National Insurance number or Unique Tax Reference and will have to wait to receive in-work benefits.

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Of course taking in-work benefits away from migrant would make it more difficult for people to work in those areas of the UK that are growing (e.g. London, Cambridge etc). It will therefore be very bad for support stuff and the service industry (hotels, restaurants, care-homes, etc) in expanding areas like London, who rely on migrant workers. But never mind, the UK economy will be destroyed by one Ukip supporter at a time...

Of course it is easy when you ignore the law!

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=462&

Any EU citizen has the same right to work in another EU country as nationals of that country:
under the same conditions and
without having to apply for a work permit.

I am not disagreeing with your solution on principle, just pointing out that in practice it is against EU law. We could institute a language test but how many UK nationals would pass it ?:)

I think that we may have to accept a more modest filter. For example we could limit benefits to those who pass a basic language test and who have evidence of having paid an employment tax in an EU nation for a minimum of two years. However, it would penalise our own nationals and cost money to implement.

chewmylegoff

BobQ wrote: »

Of course it is easy when you ignore the law!

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=462&



I am not disagreeing with your solution on principle, just pointing out that in practice it is against EU law. We could institute a language test but how many UK nationals would pass it ?:)

I think that we may have to accept a more modest filter. For example we could limit benefits to those who pass a basic language test and who have evidence of having paid an employment tax in an EU nation for a minimum of two years. However, it would penalise our own nationals and cost money to implement.

What does the right to claim particular benefits have to do with the right to work? You don't need to be able to claim tax credits in order to have the right to work and the govt could quite legitimately legislate to prevent any person who hasn't lived in this country for X years from claiming tax credits without discriminating against migrants from other EU countries as the same rules would apply to UK citizens. Other EU countries already do this...

BobQ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

What does the right to claim particular benefits have to do with the right to work? You don't need to be able to claim tax credits in order to have the right to work and the govt could quite legitimately legislate to prevent any person who hasn't lived in this country for X years from claiming tax credits without discriminating against migrants from other EU countries as the same rules would apply to UK citizens. Other EU countries already do this...

My comment was on what nowakee said and related to in-work benefits. Do you think that would comply with EU law?

BobQ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

What does the right to claim particular benefits have to do with the right to work? You don't need to be able to claim tax credits in order to have the right to work and the govt could quite legitimately legislate to prevent any person who hasn't lived in this country for X years from claiming tax credits without discriminating against migrants from other EU countries as the same rules would apply to UK citizens. Other EU countries already do this...

Which ones do this please?