They're coming into our country and they don't even have to register to claim benefits now

[bupcakesandcunting]

Not the words of me but of Alf Garnett my mother.

I feel that she has reached the pinnacle of twattery. AIBU to tell her to shut the fuck up with this? Honestly, it makes me so fucking angry, especially when it is punctuated with "I read it in the newspaper", like that makes it definitely true.

I am now imagining a Spartacus scenario where sundry Mumsnetters defend Bupcakes by standing up ddeclaring "I am Robert Mugabe".

I've met Mugabe (and shook his hand) if that counts?????? (it was before he totally lost the plot)

Indeed. Blorry forriners. My DH is one, though I forgive him for it, just about. Being an out-of-EU forriner, he's not allowed any benefits except the NHS. So he's had to actually get a job and work hard and, get this, pay loads and loads of taxes that lazy-arsed Brits* use to live on benefits.

• disclaimer - I am only talking about the ones who genuinely are lazy, not people on benefits out of genuine need. I know the responses such comments can get around here!

Do you remember that tragic case a few years back of the immigrant cockle pickers drowning?

Annie - can I, as a benefits claimant, thank your DH for working hard and paying taxes to support me while I'm "here".

Totem - I do and while nothing of that magnitude has happened since \linkwww.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-11619733\potential situations like it still exist}

Sil in law moved here from Italy a year ago to start her own business, she applied for Child benefit for her only child. She has still not received a penny even though she applied 12 months ago, we've chased it and been told to call back at the end of April
I gave birth in November and received CB in December.

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-11619733\potential situations still exist}

\link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8177468.stm\another report here}

Baroque, that's awful.

After the gangmasters had deducted "debts" from their pay packets they were left with only £1 to live on per week.

It's shocking. You can't live off £1 a week anywhere in the UK.

I actually feel more sorry for the poor people who come here thinking it will solve all their problems, believing that we are a tolerant and safe country.

Last year, not far from where I live, a Polish truck driver was beaten to death in the cab of his truck. He left his homeland for that? :(

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11617664\this report is about child trafficking to the UK for labour purpose - but does also mention adults as well}

Explotation of foreign workers to is alive and sadly well in the UK, often you only hear about the women trafficked and forced into the sex industry - but the problem is much deeper than that. And many of them will come to the UK as "legal" immigrant (I use the word loosely as their exploitation will have started before they even apply for a visa or get a ticket here)

absolutely bupcakes - it much be an awful shock to come here thinking that they can build a future here and to find such prejudice and mistrust,

"Many posters on MN do not want to acknowledge the real unemployment that exsists around the country and immigration impacts on this further. The immigrants do not work any harder or for less by the way, that has been fabricated. I live amongst people who have never worked but are actively seeking work, the work is not there. The amount of people living off benefits as a lifestyle choice is small. "

depends where you are. Where I live there are Poles living 10 to a house working at the chicken factory because no one here wants to give up their benefits to work with poultry carcases.

round here they tend to take the temp, or seasonal jobs - the types which many people on benefits (espciall those with chidlren) are reluctant to take - with good reason - it can leave you really really srewed!

I cannot blame people for being angry with the amount of immigration NL allowed into this country. It really hasn't any positive effect on the lives of indigenous Brits, except for those that are already wealthy, it has just made things harder for hard-working people that just want to get on. It is hard for parents to know that the world is a harsher place for their children than it was for them. Wages are far lower than they were a generation ago but the cost of living is far higher. I know I will NEVER vote for Labour again, they completely betrayed the very people the party was set up to represent.

I don't blame immigrants for coming here though, I would do the same in their position. I blame the scumbag politicians that allowed it to happen.

My DH is Polish and i now have loads of Polish friends, singles an families, and none of them i know claim any benefits at all! Rather they all work hard in factories and warehouses doing long hours an using that money to suport their families an kids - AND NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT IT! Damned grateful to have jobs in the first place!

You'll get a few bad eggs in every basket but overall - BUT much better work ethic than many brit young men in the same postition.

At the warehouse where DH works they often use agency workers to fill gaps in labour force - many times he has seen polish lads come in an work their socks off an get given permanaent jobs.

And many many times he has seen young brit lads (not all - but a lot) come in, late every day for first week, or off sick after one day, or turning up drunk or hungover, or working so slowly its hardly worth being there!!!! True

What are these firms supposed to do - employ these idiots just because they are British!

"Where I live there are Poles living 10 to a house working at the chicken factory because no one here wants to give up their benefits to work with poultry carcases." I guess it depends what wages that factory pays though.

If I was going to be no better off for working a long shift doing something very unpleasant, I'd take the benefits too. Imho - it is the system that is wrong. The tax/benefits system is so bloody complicated it disincentivises people to take "any job". As baroque says above there is plenty of seasonal work available - but if you are going to get into schtuck with your child tax credits/housing benefit etc etc, well you are not going to bother are you? The immigrants of course aren't affected by this. So you could have swathes of people working at least some of the time if the system was simpler.

robf, you know that the british occasionally move abroad too right? That on this planet people may be born in one place and that moving to another isn't that big a deal. You are not required, nor shoudl you be blocked from moving from the place you were randomly born.

Do people forget that the British move abroad or because they are British are they actually improving the countries they go to? Is that the way some people genuinely see it?

"indigenous Brits"

Indigenous Brits is a bloody misnomer. We're made of all sorts of races. Nords, Germanic, Romans...

"It really hasn't any positive effect on the lives of indigenous Brits"

Sorry what was that again? Indigenous Brits?

Please explain what that is because i have never come across one in my life and have lived in Britain 20 years.

"It really hasn't any positive effect on the lives of indigenous Brits"

Really? You're sure about that? No indigenous Brit (I'm presuming you mean white ), has even hd any benefit from a foreigner.................

wow - where do these people live for that to have happened? (oh I get it - our'e talking about the 5 million + British expats living overseas...............)

There was a great documentary on a few months ago challenging the myths re: migrant EU workers. Basically virtually none of the Brits on benefits who were given trial runs at said jobs (asparagus harvesting, veg packing) did very well or were interested in the work. Some didn't even turn up.

I think one bloke did ok in the veg packing after a very shaky start, and applied for a position, but was told there wasn't anything going at the time. (I wonder if they didn't like his attitude - he was very begrudging about being there in the first place - so fair enough.)

Obviously it was only a small section of society, but interesting nevertheless.

I watched that too nomoreheels, was very apalling.

Serious question:

I know a few people who are here 'illegally' because they are failed asylum seekers who cannot be deported back to Zimbabwe for obvious reasons. They are not on benefits and are not in social housing. They then work with forged documents. Their salaries have tax and NI contributions deducted. Where is the money going? They can never claim for tax credit or child benefit. They can vote though How is this person the same as someone who has never worked?