- New rules mean EU arrivals claiming jobseeker's allowance will not be able to receive housing benefit as well
- Those who get jobs but then lose them will only be entitled to housing benefit for six months
- Ministers hope the measures will cut migration to the UK from EU states
- But both Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May say more needs to be done
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Jobless immigrants are to be denied housing benefit.
Writing in the Mail today, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May say Britain’s generous welfare system should no longer be a magnet for citizens of other EU states.
The Work and Pensions Secretary and the Home Secretary claim Labour doled out millions of pounds ‘for people to sit on benefits’ while opening the door to mass migration.
They pointed to incendiary figures showing the number of Britons in jobs plunged by 413,000 between 2005 and 2010, while the number of working foreigners soared by 736,000.
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Less appealing: Ministers have outlined a tough new crackdown on migrants claiming benefits in a bid to get annual net migration down to the tens of thousands
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New rules: Home secretary Theresa May, pictured left, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, pictured right, claim the Government's reforms to welfare and immigration systems are beginning to pay off
They said this was a shameful betrayal and evidence that immigration can displace some British workers and depress wages for the low-skilled.
Under the new rules, to be introduced in April, new European arrivals claiming jobseeker’s allowance will not be able to receive housing benefit as well.
Those who get jobs but then go on to out-of-work handouts will be able to claim housing benefit for up to six months.
After this they will have to show they have a genuine prospect of work.
Housing benefit helps cover accommodation costs for people who are out of work or on low incomes.
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Strict: Under the new regulations, EU arrivals claiming jobseeker's allowance will not be able to claim housing benefit as well
Under emergency regulations that took effect on January 1, all new EU migrants now have to wait for at least three months before they can claim out-of-work benefits.
In their article, Mr Duncan Smith and Mrs May say the Government’s reforms to the welfare and immigration systems are beginning to pay off.
Between 2010 and 2013, the number of Britons in jobs rose by 538,000, while the number of working foreigners increased by 247,000.
The figures are even more striking for the year 2012-13 with 348,000 more British workers and only 26,000 from abroad.
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Employment minister Esther McVey has claimed the Government's long-term economic plan has helped create 1.6million private sector jobs
The ministers say the new £26,000-a-year cap on household benefit claims has affected 33,000 families and encouraged up to 19,000 to return to work.
A limit on economic migrants from outside the EU, changes to the rules on family and student visas and a crackdown on bogus colleges have helped bring down net migration by nearly a third from its peak.
However, Mr Duncan Smith and Mrs May admit there is ‘much more to do’ to meet a Tory target of getting annual net migration down to the tens of thousands.
Ministers have set out a series of measures to limit migrant access to public services and benefits to try to reduce further so-called ‘pull factors’ to the UK.
Landlords will be fined up to £3,000 if they rent a property to an illegal immigrant, while non-EU migrants will be expected to pay a levy of £200 a year to access the NHS if they do not have private healthcare.
The changes to the housing benefit rules will not affect UK and Irish Republic nationals, or European migrants genuinely self-employed or in a job.
European nationals who have been working in the UK, and are subsequently made redundant and claim benefits, will not be affected.
Historically, EU migrants have been able to lodge a claim for the benefit as soon as they arrive in Britain and pass a ‘habitual residence test’ under EU rules.
The Government’s reforms mean they will not be able to make a housing benefit claim at any point unless they are in work.
Employment minister Esther McVey said the Government’s long-term economic plan had helped create 1.6million private sector jobs.
This shameful betrayal
It was a shameful betrayal of thousands of British workers. For years Labour presided over a labour market where the number of foreign people in jobs rocketed to record levels – while thousands of British workers were left on the sidelines, facing the prospect of long-term unemployment.
Today – as Work and Pensions Secretary and Home Secretary – we publish a devastating analysis which lays bare the shocking scale of Labour’s failure.
But this analysis also demonstrates how this Government’s long-term economic plan is putting things right.
Welfare reform and controlling immigration are at the very core of this plan – and if we are to strike the right balance for a strong, sustainable economy, we cannot look at these issues in isolation.
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Both Home Secretary Theresa May, pictured with Prime Minister David Cameron, and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith claim Labour doled out millions in benefits while allowing mass migration
Labour failed to recognise that if you have a welfare system that doesn’t make work worthwhile or support people into jobs, you pay the price elsewhere.
With one hand, Labour doled out millions of pounds for people to sit on benefits. With the other, they opened the door to mass migration, with those from abroad filling jobs which our own people didn’t want or couldn’t get.
In just five years between 2005 and 2010, for every British person who fell out of work, almost two foreign nationals gained employment.
Now, the Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions are working together to put this travesty right.
Already, we are seeing success in reforming welfare and restoring the incentive for British people to get back to work.
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Iain Duncan Smith argues that the Government is now reversing the damage done under Labour
Take the benefit cap: already 33,000 households have had their benefits cut so they receive no more than average earnings, and 19,000 potentially capped claimants have returned to work.
As a result, as our economy picks up, we have reversed the damaging trend under Labour. The latest data shows that of the rise in employment over the past year, over 90 per cent went to UK nationals.
We’re also putting right the mess Labour left on immigration. Of course immigration, over the generations, has made a tremendously rich contribution to our country, both culturally and in terms of the talent it brings – but it must be controlled.
We know that the idea there’s a set number of jobs to be divided up and handed around is wrong, and things are far more complicated than the simplistic notion that all immigrants come and ‘take British jobs’.
But evidence from the Migration Advisory Committee and other academic studies has demonstrated that immigration can displace some British workers in the labour market. So we have tightened up the system... and the latest figures show our reforms are working.
For those migrants who do come here, we’re ensuring they are unable to take unfair advantage of our system by accessing benefits as soon as they arrive.
For example, we introduced rules so that from January 1 this year we are banning individuals from receiving out-of-work benefits until they have been living in the UK for three months. And we will go still further: from the beginning of April we will be removing entitlement to housing benefit altogether for this group.
In addition, EU migrants can only claim jobseeker’s allowance for six months unless they have genuine prospects of finding work. No longer can people come here from abroad and expect to get something for nothing.
Together, these new immigration and benefit checks will clamp down on those trying to exploit the system. We can ensure that Britain’s growing economy and dynamic jobs market deliver for those who work hard and play by the rules.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542352/Exclusive-Ministers-new-crackdown-Housing-benefit-ban-jobless-migrants.html#ixzz2qurATAEH
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