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?

About One and a quarter million foreign born people are on UC , radio4 6 o’clock news last night.
Reform demanding the numbers -
8 million receive UC, 1 million of those born overseas. 2/3 are E.U. citizens ,1/2 of those ones in employment. 100,000 have refugee status though some of those could have been people trafficked . .75,000 with temporary visas are on it (so prob should not be entitled).
Whatever …. Great stats for reform to beat the Gov with

Not really - it shows how most claimants are uk born, followed by EU nationals

Also that includes in work benefits, and housing benefits

Everyone can rant and rave as much as they like about family members born abroad who’ve paid tax all their life, or the disabled who need pip, or the elderly who are going to get hypothermia due to lack of wfa but someone s got to cough up - if no one does we’re stuffed, education, nhs, the lot - stop dumping it onto the rich or whoever your magic pixie dust will come up with.
Basically we should ALLcontributemore.

It's not going to get any better. The social contract is completely broken. The country seems to be on the verge of collapse with an ever decreasing minority paying for it all, whilst getting absolutely no benefit from their taxes whilst being demonised for being "rich" (paying 40% tax on anything over £50k). I would advise you to leave if you can.

I'm not sure where you live but many areas around me in London you go down the high street and see 90% of the shops and restaurants are aimed at non british nationals (different language signage etc) alongside people staring at you no matter your age (genuinely), hardly hearing a word of english on the streets or shops. This is the lack of cohesion most of us are talking about when you feel a stranger in the place you were born and grew up in.

Err, so what ? I think we've all heard of Google by now.
I was pointing out that it's normally expected that people give sources for quotes.
No cause for sarcasm!

America caused all this with the disastrous Middle East uprising effort and Afghan and Iraq wars.

It’s too late now. We are past the point of no return. It’s only going to get worse.

Governments don’t know what to do about it and so it just gets worse year by year.

Sane here.
Both DH and I are immigrants. We moved to the UK using work visa via the point based system. It was absolutely clear no recourse to public funding.
That was more than a decade ago and now we have became uk citizens. I continue to pay over £50k of income tax and NI every year (I am high earner with professional job).
It really upset me when ppl say immigrants are taking advantage and claim benefits.

I have just been on the Mail online and read a few of the comments on the article about Farage and these figures. Amongst the best rated ones was a comment saying that all Afghan men are child sex abusers, that nobody should get child benefit unless they could trace their family's Briish heritage back for 100 years and the top rated one saying "NIGEL is our only hope" Farage has never held a surgery in Clacton, has hardly been there since he was elected and is often missing from the HoC yet he seen as some sort of political genius and potential saviour of the nation. He is a conduit for hate and fear and he is exploiting the discontent and misery in this country for his own gain. Sometimes I do hope he wins the next election, if he is what people want then let them have it. Trouble is there won't be any get out clause for those who think he would be the worst thing ever

People who work and pay taxes are already fed up.of paying for people who won't, or lapping it up in hotels. Not when they can't get a doctors appointment, can't get a dentist, can't get on the housing ladder and the roads are filthy.

Social contract has broken down

"Social contract has broken down" seems to be the phrase du jour, along with the UK being on the "point of collapse" etc.

If I were the suspicious type, I might suspect there is a script.

I an heartened to see lots of posters calling out the bigotry on this thread. Thank you.

This is what Starmer meant when he referred to the UK becoming an “island of strangers” but of course he was near crucified for saying it and then in a panic felt he had to distance himself from it.

Anyone who can, should leave and let those who feel strongly in favour of the continued decline should pick up the tab. Nobody is obligated to stay if they have other options. If young people can leave, I would encourage them to do so rather than face a future of very high taxes to pay for a houseshare in some grotty overpriced hovel.

People not agreeing with you doesn't mean it's all a big conspiracy. People have different life experiences you know...

I read and hear this kind of thing a lot mostly from swivel-eyed loons on Twitter and I still just completely fail to see what the problem is. Okay, being stared at is not great, but I think we've all experienced hostile stares from all sorts of people, not just people with different skin colours or different languages.
And, genuinely, what is the problem with shops and restaurants being aimed at 'non-British nationals', in your words (or, you know, British people who speak other languages)? And what precisely is the problem with hearing languages other than English? I live near a large orthodox Jewish population and much of this description fits with my experience. I really don't feel like a stranger though, have a big problem with it.

Hear, hear.

Well we all have different lived experiences.

Care to expand? or is it a 'no debate' situation?

I'm fine with pockets of areas which are like this, however my area and the surrounding areas are all like this that it gets a bit much? I choose to stay in England because i enjoy the British culture of our country and want to live in a place where i get to enjoy that. Of course i could just move to a different part of the country which i am working on right now, but it just doesn't sit right with me for this many areas, large in size and population to be dominated by non-british culture completely. The same as I'd be very confused going on holiday to Japan and find towns and cities dominated by Australians.

@LittleBitofBread

It’s also the complete double standards in a sentiment like that.

Look at counties round the world who have no longer have their indigenous identity because of historic European ‘boat people’ (to use their language)..

Who have had their resources stripped and encouraged to live a Westernised lifestyle which is all about the £££££££.
Wonder what they think when they see rows of fast food restaurants in their once beautiful country selling unhealthy crap for profit.

Not really. Just making the point that people’s perspectives on what is going on around them may well vary from yours. What causes you no discomfort might be quite the opposite for someone else. Reasonable?

As I've said, what I'm trying to get at is precisely WHY it's a problem for some people to hear languages other than English, or see shop signs in other languages.

Putin’s biggest success in recent years has been weaponising refugee flows into Western Europe.

The huge influx over a very short period of time has undermined trust in the social contract (we are all club members and pay into the system while we can and take from it when we cannot) and with it trust in governments.

This is happening across Western Europe.

I'd encourage anyone to leave the cesspit its becoming, and what's round the corner after 4 more years of this. However, it's not just the UK. The west is on the path of self-destruction..i wouldn't want to live in France either.

If you're rich you can live in a nice area and are sheltered from it. If you're poor you can't afford to leave.

'British culture' is the phrase that particularly puzzles me in this context. How do you define that exactly? Are Brick Lane or Southall (because let's face it we are talking about people with dark skin here) any less British than a village in (say) the Cotswolds where everybody is white and you hear exclusively English? If so, how and why? They're both here.

Japan is one of the least ethnically diverse countries you could've mentioned, at least partly because it took a conscious decision to shut all its borders for such a long period. Without going off on a massive tangent, I think there's a discussion to be had about what good has come out of this and what bad.