Legal News

Welfare handouts were the main reason that UK immigration had been so attractive for migrants from poorer EU countries a report has claimed.

The report said that UKs very open welfare benefits were acting as magnet to migrants acting as a huge incentive for foreigners wanting to join the long UK immigration queue.

The study had come after MPs were told that the number of Romanians and Bulgarians in Britain could treble from 155,000 to 425,000 when restrictions on their movement would be lifted at the end of next year.

Immigration watch dog Migration Watch UK had claimed that the generous nature of work and unemployment benefits were great attraction for such a thing to happen.

Home Secretary Theresa May in a speech would be announcing measures to help meet David Cameron’s pledge to reduce net migration to 100,000 by next elections.

Official figures last month showed that net migration levels to the UK had fallen significantly in the past year. The balance between the number of people who came to live in Britain and the number leaving had fallen from 242,000 to 183,000 in the year to March. It happened mainly due to the fall in the number of foreign students studying in the UK.

Home Office officials welcomed the analysis by Migration Watch of Statistics from a respected international economic body OECD, outlining income, and tax and welfare benefits in 15 EU countries which shows Britain has the fourth most generous system in benefits to low income workers such as housing, child and other payments.

Using OECD figures, the study says that a man with a wife and two children earning 50 per cent of the average wage will have gross pay of £17,150. After deductions of £2,135 in income tax and £1,258 National Insurance, the family is left with £13,757. They would then receive £3,952 housing benefit, £6,897 in family-related benefits and £416 work-related benefits.

The total net take-home pay, including the benefits “uplift”, is £25,022 – 82 per cent higher than the post-tax pay. Only Luxembourg (92 per cent), Ireland (85 per cent) and Denmark (286 per cent) have more generous benefits.

In relations to cost of living UK workers on 50 per cent of the average wage were second only to Luxembourg in how much they got in benefits. Unlike other 14 EU countries newcomers were getting access to unemployment benefits without making a prior contribution

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said that the study found that the UK was far more generous than most other EU countries making UK immigration the most attractive option for migrants from poorer EU member states.
Deven Ghelani, of the Centre for Social Justice, said it was wrong to assume that welfare payments were the main draw attracting immigrants.