More Than One Million Foreigners Are Claiming Benefits
Benefits are being claimed by over one million foreign nationals, costing over £7.5 billion a year, according to an analysis of Government figures, prompting calls for an overhaul of eligibility rules. The Telegraph has more.
Households with at least one foreign national claimant received more than £7.5 billion in universal credit in 2023, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.
Foreign nationals become eligible for universal credit and other benefits on the same terms as British citizens once they are granted indefinite leave to remain and have settled or refugee status. After paying national insurance for 10 years, they are also entitled to the state pension.
The analysis by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) suggests 40 nationalities – after getting indefinite leave to remain, settled status or refugee protection – are claiming benefits at a greater rate per head of population than British citizens. Three nationalities – Congolese, Iraqis and Afghans – are claiming benefits at four times the rate of British people.
The disclosure of the foreign welfare bill comes ahead of an expected announcement by Sir Keir Starmer unveiling up to £6 billion of benefit cuts. He has described the system as “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair” but is facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership over the planned reforms.
The cost of foreign benefit claims excludes a further £5.4 billion for accommodating and supporting a backlog of more than 100,000 asylum seekers. That cost rose five-fold in five years under the last Conservative government.
The bill is likely to increase as 800,000 foreign nationals are expected to receive indefinite leave to remain in the UK over the next decade following record levels of net migration of up to 906,000 a year, according to a separate analysis by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS).
The Tories have proposed that jobless and low-paid migrants should be barred from remaining indefinitely in the UK. They have also argued that the length of time before anyone who has come to the UK can claim such leave to remain should be increased from five to 10 years.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the benefits bill for foreign nationals was “unacceptable” and “astonishing”. “It is immoral that British taxpayers are subsidising nationals of other countries on an industrial scale. No wonder our taxes are so high,” he said.
“Research shows low-wage migrants actually cost other taxpayers money. This is why the era of mass migration has to end. I have tabled amendments to the Borders Bill to create a legally binding annual cap on immigration numbers and an increase in the visa salary threshold to £38,000 across the board.”
The CMC analysis is based on DWP data from 2019, which shows that there were 990,000 foreigners – 610,000 non-EU nationals and 380,000 EU nationals – who were claiming working-age benefits, an increase of 9% on the year before. This compared with 6.1 million Britons, which had only increased by 4% since 2018.
Worth reading in full.
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Of course this figure is just the tip of the iceberg.
Astonishing hypocrisy coming from the Windbag Tories who had 14 YEARS IN POWER to deal with it, and did nothing.
It never made any sense to me that non-British citizens could receive welfare benefits of any kind. Or that they could vote in British elections.
Totally agree. Suspect that some (not all) immigrant groups will be claiming benefits at greater than average rate going back several generations. I bet this data exists somewhere because every form you fill in asks for your race/ethnicity.
Yes, and though I support the crackdown on all the perfectly strong, healthy young people receiving large amounts of extra benefits just for claiming “anxiety” or “depression”, they are only being targeted now so that funds can be channelled to the Muslim Army being quietly inserted into every corner of the West, awaiting the signal to attack the helplessly unarmed Indigenous.
I suspect that only white young people will be cracked down upon, leaving the Third World Ethnics untouched, wallowing in taxpayers money.
We do indeed have a problem with some native British people, but this has in my view been made a lot worse by importing large numbers of aliens, pushing down wages especially for the kind of entry level jobs that the natives ought to be able to do.
You are right, and I think successive governments have “tempted” mothers who have raised strong, healthy sons to spoil them, claiming some fake mental illness because the mothers get loads of extra cash to “care for” them, and the grown sons get loads of extra cash and nobody pestering them to pull their socks up and look for a job.
It’s not wages tof it’s the very idea of working for a living.
I have in the past dealt with households where three generations are on benefits. Families without a work culture view the suggestion of work as alien. Work needs to be made compulsory fir at least three years from leaving education. A lifetime on benefits should not be an option.
I agree drastic measures are called for. Living on benefits is no kind of life for anyone so it’s actually not doing them any favours in the long run. I think the do-gooders miss this point.
It’s a radical concept I know, however I don’t see why appropriate community service work should not be exchanged for benefits where people are able. So much talent that could do something positive and help themselves and others… at present it’s rather like all the covibollocks – exchanging vast amounts of (newly printed) cash for no work / output. And people seemed surprised when inflation spiked…
Possibly as a last resort approach if real work paid at market rates by private businesses is not available. Agree that doing nothing useful is terrible for people.
Tried to add this above but timed out:
having a ‘default’ option where you have to do exactly nowt is not good, as many people will accept that, whereas if you had to work hard to achieve that level, I’d like to think it would incentivise more people to try harder, so they can have more. Many years ago being on benefits also had a stigma, it seems much less so now
yup, agree with that
You got me thinking of the fictional character Onslow, the only time he’d get off the couch is when his fife is getting frisky and needs to make an escape.
Yes to all of that. I speak from an ex DWP perspective.
‘Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the benefits bill for foreign nationals was “unacceptable” and “astonishing”
Er, weren’t they in charge for the last 14 years?
Oh that’s so ‘last year’ – don’t worry about details like that! 😉
Politicians seem to only have memory’s or foresight measured in months maximum now – perhaps led astray by social media as per rest of the population generally it seems
The MPs have a plan for that….The Online “Harms” Bill.
Another article exposes that the Left is devoid of irony!
Rule of law deteriorates across the EU, report finds
It’s a bit rich that the Tories are so self righteous and pointing the finger now when they let it happen on their watch and actively encouraged it
“The Tories have proposed that jobless and low-paid migrants should be barred from remaining indefinitely in the UK. They have also argued that the length of time before anyone who has come to the UK can claim such leave to remain should be increased from five to 10 years.”
Which Brain of Britain thought that gem up? FFS!!!
The first thing which MUST be done is scrapping ECHR. If this is not done all the rest is BS.
That’s another thing they didn’t do…..How can anyone take they seriously after 14 years. Ah but we were in Government then and it’s not so easy!
Chris Philip needed advice and research to come to the conclusion that low paid immigrants cost the rest of us money. Has anyone told him you get wet when it rains and what bears do in the woods.
Where do the parties find people with such low ability. Is there a scheme whereby Uniparty agree to take on some of them to help with social needs.
As a matter of interest, how many countries offer indefinite leave of stay and state-benefits funded by indigenous taxpayers, to destitute Britons entering such countries illegally and without passports or other documentation?
ILR is the technical term.
Indefinite Leave to Remain
Noted, thank you.
👍👍👍
It would help if “foreigners” could be defined.
There are probably two million plus foreigners ie not born in this country, living in this country and who are about as British as Osama bin Laden but they’ve got their sun-tanned mits on a British passport. It doesn’t make them British. How many terrorist incidents are put down to British citizens who are called mohammed or Ali or some such?
Typical gaslighting.
The real attacks come from people from Romania and Bulgaria who work within gangs and get away with quite a bit. They don’t even live in this country most of the time. I am not disparaging Romanians or the Romanian nation but you do not allow people from such a country to enter yours when it is replete with scumbags, I know what I am talking about The people who allow it grew up with a tamgerine piss nightmare where the only future for their nation state was total eradication. There is no way to get the infestation out now. What do you do. You live in a miserly cell and your cell becomes infected with rats who the guards feed in on a daily basis. There is nothing you can do.
MP Rupert Lowe is not such a defeatist. He pointed out several things that can be done to “get the infestation out now”.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, as the old saying goes, originating in the 17th century with English writer George Herbert, who said
“To him that will, ways are not wanting.”
This was changed to the modern form in the 19th century.
‘Benefits are being claimed by over one million foreign nationals, costing over £7.5 billion a year…’ and the Winter Fuel payment was withdrawn from most pensioners in order to save £1.5 billion per year 😡 Nice move, Starmer – what was the Labour Party mantra at one time? Oh yes – ‘For the many, not the few’!!!
‘For the many, not the few’
‘The many’ seems to refer to the Establishment’s beloved foreigners.
Exactly – I meant to add that in my post but forgot.
No surprises here as this is precisely why so many come to this country. The entire identity politics and benefits bandwagon has created one huge moral hazard type of situation. It cannot be sustained and the longer this nonsense continues the greater will be the societal and political backlash.