Legal News

Migrants from the European Union coming to the UK to work will in the future face tougher benefit rules if they are unable to find a job within six months of arriving in Britain.

As early as Tuesday (01/07/14), EU migrants claiming benefits in the UK for six months without having found work may face deportation, the Sunday Express reports.

The government has introduced tougher rules for EU migrants coming to the UK to work, partly in response to the public and media outcry over the lifting of border restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria from 1 January this year.

As part of the measures to restrict access to benefits for EU migrants, the Tory Party introduced a three-month waiting limit before migrants could claim benefits in the UK.

The six-month rule on claims was also proposed, so that migrants from EU member states who did not have a realistic prospect of being offered a job could be returned to their country of origin without staying in the UK claiming benefits.

From this week, this could become a reality.

However, anyone earning a threshold income of £150 per week would be considered as employed – £150 is the equivalent of working for 24 hours a week at the minimum wage, which would entitle a worker who lost their job to claim benefits.

EU migrants not meeting the threshold wage level for benefits – and who has been claiming out-of-work benefits in the UK for six months – will face an interview to decide whether they have a reasonable chance of gaining employment in Britain in the future.

If they are deemed “marginal” and “ancillary” to the jobs market, they could face deportation.

The government has toughened up EU migrants’ access to other benefits – including housing benefit, which they can no longer claim – but the new measures will also affect EU migrants claiming child benefit in the UK.

Recently there has been a media furore over the amount of child benefit being paid by the British taxpayer to migrants who returned to their home countries after living in the UK for a period and qualifying for child benefit.

In February 2013, Migration Watch UK estimated that £1 million in child benefit is paid every week to parents living overseas – and a total of 30,000 families claim for 50,000 children not resident in the UK.

Parents receive £20.30 per week for their first child and then £13.40 per week for each subsequent child.

A concession to out-of-work EU migrants claiming benefits in the UK is that the government will allow migrants a period of time to improve their English language skills before deportation, if poor English is considered one reason for an individual not having found work. Migrants may be granted a further six months to improve their English skills under the new measures to toughen up access to benefits for EU migrants.

The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said:

“The public have sent a clear message that they are concerned that migrants should contribute to this country –and not be drawn here by the attractiveness of our benefits system.

“Freedom of movement is not a freedom to pick and choose where to claim benefits – and we will continue to work with other countries across Europe that share our concerns to ensure we can protect the integrity of our benefits system.”

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors can advise migrants to the UK on a range of matters, including:

• Access to benefits
• British citizenship
• Marriage in the UK
• Right to work in the UK
• Spouse visas
• Student visas.

Duncan Lewis is also a leading provider of Legal Aid services in the UK.

For expert help with immigration law in the UK, contact Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors on 020 7923 4020.