Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:57:30 +0200
Britain cuts EU migrants' access to welfare payments
<http://www.reuters.com/> ReutersBy By William James | Reuters - Tue, Jul
29, 2014
By William James
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday set out new
welfare rules to cut access to social security payments for migrants from
the European Union, the latest in a string of British measures aimed at
addressing voter concern over immigration.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Cameron said that from November
migrants coming to Britain from the EU to find work would be entitled to
claim unemployment and child benefits for three months, rather than the
previous six months.
Opinion polls show immigration is one of voters' biggest concerns going into
a national election in 2015, fuelling a rise in eurosceptic sentiment that
has helped the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) draw voters away from
Cameron's Conservatives.
In a bid to stop voters defecting, Cameron has said he wants to cut net
migration and has targeted those who he says come to Britain solely to tap
its benefit system.
"We're ... making sure people come for the right reasons - which has meant
addressing the magnetic pull of Britain's benefits system," Cameron said.
He said that by restricting job seekers' welfare access to only three months
he was sending a clear message to potential migrants: "You cannot expect to
come to Britain and get something for nothing."
The opposition Labour party has criticised Cameron for not doing enough to
stop low-skilled migrants driving wages down.
Other rule changes introduced since January have included tightening the
eligibility criteria for claimants and mandating longer waiting periods
before migrants are entitled to payments.
European Union officials have criticised Cameron's approach to immigration
and said that there is no evidence to show migrants move to Britain to claim
benefits.
"(Migrant workers are) of immense economic benefit to the member states in
terms, in particular of responding to skills gaps and labour shortages,"
European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said on Tuesday when asked about
Cameron's announcement.
"Many independent studies and our own studies systematically show that
people go to other member states to work and not to claim benefits."
Todd said the Commission would scrutinise the new measures carefully to
ensure they complied with EU law.
Other European countries such as Germany have expressed sympathy with
Cameron's concerns over the abuse of welfare system by jobless migrants, and
it is one of only a few policy areas where he has support for changes to EU
rules.
In the face of eurosceptic sentiment within his own party and the wider
electorate, Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's ties with the EU
if he is re-elected, and then put the country's continuing membership to a
public vote in 2017.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in Brussels; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman, Larry King)
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