London: Prime Minister David Cameron will insist on a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming benefits as part of his renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the European Union. He will back up his demand with the claim that nearly half of all new arrivals from the EU are claiming benefits.
He will say that 43 per cent of EU migrants rely on the support of the UK benefits system during their first four years in the country. This represents 224,000 EU nationals out of 526,000 new arrivals.
About 148,000 of these claimants, some 66 per cent, receive tax credits, housing benefit and other welfare handouts available to people in work. The government said that EU migrants entitled to so-called “in-work” benefits claimed an average of £5,000 per family, costing UK taxpayers £530 million in 2013. Under the government’s planned reforms, none of these claims would be permitted for migrants in their first four years.
No 10 also said that the figures suggested that more than 10,000 recently arrived EU families claimed over £10,000 through in-work welfare in 2013. A government source said that the new analysis made clear the need for changes to the welfare rules, and the four-year benefit ban will reduce the financial incentive for EU migrants to come to Britain in the first place.
“Because of how generous the UK’s in-work benefits can be, it can make financial sense for an EU citizen to go from an average wage elsewhere in Europe, to a minimum wage in the UK, using the in-work benefits to top up the income,” said the source.
“These benefits act as a taxpayer-backed subsidy for EU migrants to come to the UK to perform low-paid jobs. The prime minister’s renegotiation will put an end to this for the first four years.”
Cameron will set out his main EU reform demands in a speech and a letter to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council.
