One million immigrants claiming benefits

[AnxiousApocalypse]

Just been reading the comments sections of the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail articles about the one million foreigners claiming benefits in the UK. It feels like the final nail in the coffin and a lot of people will feel even more justified in expressing their anger and hate towards immigrants. What happens when Reform win the next general election and come into power? Will people be rounded up en masse and put in detention centres like the USA?

Thank you. Finally somebody who deals in facts.

Exactly this.

But this is about immigrants on benefits.
Your point is about asylum seekers working illegally. Two completely different things

It’s all a very unfunny joke. This country is screwed and bankrupt. I’m going to have to pay more taxes for people on benefits - happy to pay for those who truly need benefits but I am getting taxed to high heaven. It’s not sustainable. The infrastructure isn’t there and is broken. My kids are going to be screwed too.

Well the only category of immigrants who are eligible for benefits are asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work until they have their application processed. The amount they get isn’t a huge amount, but of course accomodation is provided. The Government need to get applications processed quickly, and then those ineligible removed from financial support and returned to their country of origin. Problem is the volumes, and backlogs dealing with applications. It’s a pressured job, not that well paid considering the responsibility of getting it right. Appeals also have backlogs and by the time someone arrives, has their application processed and appeals concluded, 5yrs plus can easily have passed. For any Government it’s a big issue.

The vast majority of immigrants to the UK work and contribute to society. As others have stated, most visa routes apart from asylum are no resource to public funds.

Yes asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their claims are being processed. Most would love to work.

It’s lower than I expected really. 1 in 8. Although the proportion of UC claimants from a migrant background who are in work is much lower than for the UK/Irish claimants.

Why are we discussing asylum seekers in this conversation? They are not on UC. These claimants are the ones who have established some sort of claim from engaging with the system and are documented and here legally.

Agree that the migrants who follow the rules and pay massive visa fees are the most entitled to feel upset about the irregular migrants who arrive illegally. And have to deal with the same negativity.

We do need a period of much lower migration. To integrate and settle those who will never leave. To allow infrastructure to catch up.

I do agree that the UK as an entity has some responsibility for its colonial past but we need to be mature enough to recognise there are limits and guilt shouldn’t require ordinary British people from expecting sensible controls and management of borders. The current system is blatantly not fair to anyone.

Absolutely the same with my immigrant OH. No recourse to public funds (including child benefit) for the first 5 years in the UK and the £1000s we paid for visas and NHS. I could claim child benefit as a UK citizen but that’s the only benefit our family has claimed in the 10 years of living here together because we earn too much.

There are structural problems in the UK due to oligarchs (who happen to own the media) wanting to continually increase their wealth. The narratives they peddle are distracting from the real solution, which is greater redistribution of their wealth

I’m a migrant in Australia, so think I can comment on this. The difference here is that compared with the UK, we have very few illegal immigrants, mostly due to our geographical isolation. It is much harder to come here on a boat, than it is to cross the Channel. So most of us foreigners got here through the very stringent visa system. I work with some very qualified people and can see how difficult and expensive it is for them to get citizenship here ( I did it myself!), so most Aussies are aware that most immigrants are hardworking people, with no recourse to public funds. Also many people are from immigrant backgrounds themselves so are aware of the issues. And Australia is a big country, the UK is not, which I expect helps.

Have Reform said they will reduce immigration? I thought NF was a fan of cheap labour?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx201znge11o.am

Interesting that Kent (leg by reform) are worried about social care visas...

It’s all a very unfunny joke. This country is screwed and bankrupt. I’m going to have to pay more taxes for people on benefits

We are screwed because we never recovered from the 08 crash. Housing become the key driver of our economy disproportionally impacted the young. We have had years of wage stagnation. Little investment by government & business into people/staff. And the biggie, an ageing population.

I think we also need to remember that we are responsible for global inequality, exploitation, depletion of resources and poverty. The history books may paint us as heroes, but we have done some dreadful things to the countries that want support from us.

No more so than any other empire, of which there have been thousands, and not more so than local elites either. It’s usually local elites that collude and screw their local peasantry over. It happens here in the U.K. particularly badly thanks to 1066, which ensured loads of our elites got the appetite for screwing peasantry over in other countries too - most people were given little choice, especially following enclosure. Plus we have - all of us, not just the rich descendants of those families, or even primarily those families - paid in the health benefits and charity that have been given time and time again. Not to mention the contraception that much of the world refuses to use. After some more deliberate impoverishment by our elites in this new enclosure, buy to let, we do not have it to give any more. Attitudes like yours, that all of the country no matter their wealth levels should pay the entire world for ever more, are causing us severe issues right now.

It's true that they're receiving what is required under human rights, meaning taxpayers and net contributors are funding a decent quality of life for them. Human rights obligations essentially mandate the UK to ensure that every illegal immigrant with a compelling story, regardless of its authenticity, receives adequate care at the expense of taxpayers and contributors.
Both past and present governments have undeniably implemented policies that make it very easy for anyone to enter the country. This approach allows individuals who might be terrorists or criminals, with no reliable system in place to verify their identities. They often come from countries that either neglect their own security or intentionally let these individuals leave, knowing the UK no longer prioritizes its own safety.
Another issue is that many illegal immigrants show little respect for English culture, language, customs, and traditions. Instead, they often push to impose their own religion, language, and customs in ways that reflect their home countries. These individuals seem uninterested in integrating and instead aim to have things done their way.
I recommend following independent and unbiased journalists, reporters, YouTubers, bloggers, and similar sources.

This is on top of the £8 MILLION PER DAY spent on food and hotels. It's sickening.
Vote reform to stop this utter madness!!

I think there are so many threads to the "immigrants" are stealing money narritive that it is impossible to actually get an accurate account of how much it is costing the UK tax payer.

1. If it is purely about money, then I would argue this is actually less expensive then rounding them up, and deporting them. Then you have the social cost of making some mistakes due to racial profiling, which will alienate immigrant populations. Also to create a resilient population (to disesase, misinformation etc) that requires investment.
2. If its about fairness thats where it becomes very complicated. I am a British immigrant in New Zealand. The cost, the stress and uncertainty that you have to go through to jump the hoops to get access to health services etc can be enormous, and I speak the same language. I can see why people who go through these hoops and are committed to contributing to the country would be annoyed. There are people who chose to not learn the language causing issues, and people coming to contribute have to speak the local language for their jobs.
3. There is a history of terrible leaders/politicians using immigrants as a way of building support. They go specifically to the communities where the immigrants are housed (often under-priviledged) and create division.

I have no solutions, but I do predict riots will occur maybe next year about it.

Right... but none of the people alive in Britain today are responsible for any of that. We have to deal with tensions today, if we want to prevent harm.

I agree with @Morningsleepin - we are being played. All the research points to migrants bring a being a net economic BENEFIT to a country. Our care services for the elderly are certainly struggling without them. The Telegraph has gone towards the far right and as the OP states - look at where that way of thinking and talking goes. Look at Hungary, look at the US. Christ, look at WW2. People who encourage you to hate a group of people are up to NO GOOD, and never were.

Plus, asylum seekers are not the same as economic migrants and muddling the two groups is not helpful. They have a right under the Geneva Convention to be here while their cases are heard - they are not allowed to work. And if you think surviving in poverty and uncertainty, after fleeing for your life is jammy, you clearly don't know any real refugees. I do - there are people who have run from torture, persecution, terrifying threats to their lives and their children's lives. The Geneva Convention was drawn up after WW2 for a very good reason - if you can't remember it, take yourself off for a concentration camp visit.

Honestly Brits, our grandparents fought a horrendous war (and so many died) to prevent us having to live under fascism. Don't be so fucking stupid as to welcome it in by the front door. Do we really have such very short memories?

I've more of a problem with the extremely rich filtering money out. We are being strongly encouraged to blame the wrong people for some of the difficulties we are faced with - classic misdirection. We shouldn't be so easily fooled.

Are you Nigel fartage under a nom de plume? Or are you just any old fascist?

prince Philip was an immigrant….him & his lot were/are some of the biggest benefit claimers around!

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/

lies, damn lies and statistics

3/4 of those migrants are EU citizens, who came here legally under Boris’ ‘oven ready’ Brexit EU settlement scheme.

The headlines also don’t differentiate between foreign born UK citizens and non UK citizens, leading the more challenged to conclude that these figures relate to asylum seekers when in fact they don’t.

UC covers, amongst other things, childcare costs. So again these headlines fail to point out that most of the claimants are working.

The fact that childcare is expensive, more so after Brexit, and now even more so after employer NI increase, and wages are still low, and those working can’t afford to pay for their childcare without UC, seems to bypass the headlines entirely.

I wonder why?
is it because if they had been truthful and said “Boris’ shit Brexit deal means that 750000 EU nationals living legally in the UK can claim help with childcare, as they aren’t paid enough, and childcare isn’t subsidised at source” wouldn’t have the same effect or flame more racial tensions?

Wow. I thought this site had achieved peak hate speak but apparently not. If mumsnet was a movie trilogy the next one would be trans immigrants. "Coming here stealing our benefits and our toilets".

Can I possibly appeal to what (I hope) are still British values? As a people, we believe in fair play, in decency towards others, we are sceptical about politicians who grab at power without a deep sense of public service. We are polite, we seek out facts rather than getting wound up by people playing on emotions. We are sensible, pragmatic and believe in pulling together in the face of difficulty. We challenge bullies, liars and braggards. We looked after each others children who had to run from cities that were bombed. We are the nation that rebuilt itself after WW2 and constructed a vision of care from cradle to grave, including the National Health Service. Can we just all collectively REMEMBER WHO WE ARE please? And show our deep gratitude to the generation that made it possible? Which bit of what is happening in the US looks in any way good?

I think my first question is, what kind of benefits? So, does it include for example my naturalised Canadian friend who receives child benefit for her two children, or my friend's Italian born mum who's lived here since she was 3, worked all her life and now gets a state pension?

Much more information and less stereotyping needed here I think!

This. And the number of people who fall for it is worrying.