Alarm at surge in Euro migrants on UK benefits
THE number of east Europeans applying for benefits has almost doubled amid growing fears that thousands of jobless migrants could see out the recession at the taxpayers’ expense.
Up to a million former eastern bloc citizens are eligible for some form of state handout.
Now experts are warning that even more jobless people are coming to soft-touch Britain to live off our generous benefits.
Calls were growing last night for the Government to clamp down on economic migration.
Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatchUK, said: “The number of eastern European people eligible to draw UK benefits is thought to be between 500,000 and one million but it is much too early to know the scale of the problem.
“The Government must renegotiate the benefit arrangements with eastern Europe before we have complete freedom of movement in two years’ time.”
Matthew Elliott, of TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “A year of National Insurance contributions is only enough to cover a few months of unemployment benefit.
“The potential loss is enormous. With Poland also in recession, there are few jobs and the welfare is much less generous, so the Poles will almost certainly stay, causing us a major problem.”
Job and benefit advisers report a surge in eastern Europeans asking for help, with Poles making up the vast majority.
Home Office figures show 4,049 migrants from the so-called Accession 8 (A8) countries – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia – applied for benefits in the last three months of last year. That was almost double the 2,488 for the same period in 2007. More than half of the claimants were Polish.
With up to one million eastern Europeans eligible for benefits after working in Britain for 12 months, industry experts expect the claims to skyrocket.
Polish recruitment specialist Ania Heasley said: “There has been a quiet return to Britain because being jobless here is much better than in Poland.
“Quite a few did go back when the recession first hit but a lot are clearly coming back after realising they can’t get work in Poland.
“The mood is that the economic crisis in UK is better than the crisis in Poland.” Benefits available under the controversial Worker Registration Scheme include child, housing and council tax benefit, plus tax credits.
Workers can also claim more generous Job Seekers Allowance of at least £45 a week and hundreds of pounds in income support if they prove they have worked for at least 12 months.
A UK Borders Agency spokeswoman said: “The number of eastern Europeans coming here to work is dramatically falling.”
She added that the vast majority were young, without dependents and were in work.