Non EU immigrants CANNOT claim benefits until they have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain

Comment on Islamification of Britain by David.

A newspaper report that’s not even linked to is not proof 75% of immigrants claim benefits. Show actual proof based on government figures. Can you even find the original newspaper article referred to? Looks like it was a News of the World article.

BTW I’ve checked out Migrationwatch and their figures don’t add up.

From the same page “Answerer 9”

75% of immigrants. What type of immigrants. This is the Daily Mail reporting “selectively” again no doubt.

One or two of the answers here show just the sort of ignorance of the immigration system and racism that the Daily Mail and its ilk love to feed on.

Non EU immigrants CANNOT claim benefits until they have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain. A non EU immigrant must have been legally resident in the UK for five years before they can claim ILR or for two years if they married a UK national.

Benefits are classed as follows:

income-based jobseeker’s allowance;
income support;
child tax credit;
working tax credit;
a social fund payment;
child benefit;
housing benefit;
council tax benefit;
state pension credit;
attendance allowance;
severe disablement allowance;
carer’s allowance;
disability living allowance;
an allocation of local authority housing; and
local authority homelessness assistance.

They can however claim the following as to be eligible you must have paid NI contributions. These are not classed as “public funds”.

contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance;
incapacity benefit;
retirement pension;
widow’s benefit and bereavement benefit;
guardian’s allowance;
statutory maternity pay; and
maternity allowance.

EU immigrants are allowed to claim certain reciprocal benefits if they would be entitled to them in their own country. This applies to Brits living abroad for example the 500,000 UK nationals currently living in Spain are also entitled to claim benefits through the Spanish system.

Asylum seekers are treated differently and are far fewer in number than rags like the Mail and the Sun would lead you to believe. For instance between July and September 2009, of the 7,240 asylum decisions made, 79% were refused, 9% were granted Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave (temporary permission to stay) and only 12% were granted asylum. The majority of cases are decided within 30 days.

Until asylum is granted, they cannot work so can apply for financial support if they are destitute. The level of support is currently as follows:

Married couple (or in a civil partnership): £69.57
Lone parent aged 18 or over: £42.16
Single person aged 18 or over: £35.13
Single person over 16, but under 18 £38.18
Person aged under 16: £50.81

Pregnant women and women with children aged under three get additional help.

They can also be housed, the Home Office uses private landlords and never in London or the South East, so they are not taking accommodation from UK citizens.

Non EU immigrants cannot bring in “shiploads of dependents”. Unlike many countries for example the USA, the UK only allows direct relations to join their family in the UK. i.e. minor children, spouses, or elderly parents who are totally financially reliant on their child and have no other children in their home country to care for them . They must be able to prove that they can support them financially and provide adequate accommodation.

Between July and September 2009, 14% of immigrants were returning Brits, 85,000 of them. Nearly 16 times the number of asylum seekers making claims during the same period.

So talking all this into account, of the 610,245 immigrants to the UK during the July to September 2009 period, 371,000 were students who can apply for a NI number and work part time legally, but cannot claim benefits.

That leaves 239,245 potential benefits claimants. Already we’ve disproved the Daily Mail’s “facts”.

Of these 239,245, 112,000 were work permit holders and their dependents, all of who can work, apply for a NI No but who again cannot claim benefits.

That leaves 127,245. Of these 85,000 were UK residents, some of whom may or may not be perfectly entitled to claim benefits. Others due to the length of time spent outside the UK, will not be entitled to claim certain benefits. That leaves us with 42,245.

29,085 of these were from eastern European countries that require worker registration. As stated above, some of these are entitled under reciprocal EU arrangements to certain benefits.

Of the remaining 13,160, 5,055 were asylum seekers. The remainder would be Youth Mobility, Ancestry visa entrants and such, none of whom can claim benefits.

Hope that clears up some of the misinformation.

EDIT News of the Screws? Surprise, surprise. Didn’t know their journos could spell immigration. All of our UK vicars must be behaving themselves this week then.

EDIT BTW I am not defending immigration. I’m putting some perspective (and facts) to scare mongering misinformation which is deliberately designed to create a rift between the indigenous population and immigrants.

Of course a number of immigrants claim benefits and scrounge off the system, but not the numbers claimed by the NOTW, because it’s just not possible.

What IS possible is to misinform and feed off the prejudices of those who take the media FANTASY at face value without checking FACTS. Immmigration policy and legislation is complicated BUT it is not rocket science and the facts are readily available to anyone who wants to check.

Oh and you cannot get a NI No if you are not legally in the UK.

A very balanced argument.

David