To wonder why the EU doesn't work like this?

[Mandy2003]

With all Cameron's posturing about This or That EU immigrant should/not get UK benefits I've started to wonder about something. It seems so simple and yet I've never seen it mentioned. Why don't people's benefits get paid by their OWN countries when they move within the EU?

This would avoid so much angst and woe for governments wouldn't it?

Because benefits are often linked to the tax system perhaps. Presumably you'd still want to tax immigrants?

Ok, so Spanish (for instance) worker pays tax to Spain for 10 years then moves to UK. After paying tax here for maybe 12 months they lose their job and could theoretically get much more from the UK than they'd ever paid in?

Probably because it would be an utter nightmare to administer and cost a fortune.

Or they might set up a successful business and pay tax for the rest of their life.

Because the cost of tracking it all would probably be more than it would save.