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?

Yes

or as the Daily Mail would call them if they were Brits living in Spain ‘ex-pats’

EU citizens with settled status under the Brexit ‘deal’ arranged by Boris.

And ‘benefits’ include pensions and chilcare costs,

That’s why they come. But we’ve stuck our nose into everyone’s business causing a lot of the trouble they are fleeing from.

Yep. The vast majority of immigrants are here because we need them. There are insufficient British people to do the jobs we need, or else the locals aren’t willing to do them for the compensation being offered. It really is that simple. Hence why leaving the EU solved nothing- we’ve simply replaced those European workers with non-European workers by necessity.
But anyway the Tories are now polling 15%. They’ve been destroyed by their own narrative which is wonderful. And thus the likes of The Daily Fail have jumped ship to Reform.

If and when it happens I will have zero sympathy for Starmer getting booted out as he’s shown himself more interested in the gripes of the right wing press than rebuilding a fairer and better Britain which is what he was elected to do. He’s confirmed every worst fear about himself as leader. As ineffectual as Corbyn but without that man’s principles or authenticity. Anyway, watching from afar I hope British enjoys Farage and his party of inexperienced chancers. It won’t end well!

As other posters have said, we need to question the language and statistics. DH is a child of immigrants. My MIL has never had paid work - was a SAHP and claimed her pension from 60. Is she included in these statistics but I’m guessing as she’s elderly and white, she’s an acceptable immigrant.

They are not allowed to work, which in turn fuels the black economy, therefore crime & corruption, and empowers the whole cycle to repeat with thriving human trafficking networks bringing more people in. It's a vicious cycle. There should be a reform regarding asylum and work. Having said that, the overwhelming majority of immigrants come in legally to study or to work on a visa in areas where we need them. So, it's not that simple. I'd like to see the stat about one million immigrants on benefits - if the number is correct, it will refer to people who are legal residents and then we need to put this number into context, ie. how does it compare with the rest of the population. That's the relevant info, not any high-looking figure taken out of context.

I’m confused by these UK concerns.
In Australia 30% of residents were born OS, 50% have parents who were born overseas.
We have our fair share of older folk, people from small country towns and even some outright racists but I hardly ever hear any concerns about scrounging migrants.

Australia lets in a lot of high skilled highly paid workers.

The uk has a legacy of being a destination for lower paid. During the EU era massive numbers of lower skilled migrants from eastern europe came here. Vast numbers work as cleaners and care workers, on wages that aren't high enough to support family life, leading to benefit claims.

Lots of migrants also have poor pension provision and end up on pension credit.

Its a very different picture to australia.

The Government, past and present has blatantly shut us down, called us racists when we dare question them about immigration and when Keir Starker’s announced measures to sort out immigration, he picks on those coming here to work. He was whitewashing the real problem of undocumented men pouring into the country by dinghies and directing hatred towards those that are working.
Keir Starkers is doing most of the work to enable Reform voted in next time!

@rubicustellitall Nope, I’m from the North West and have a lot of migrant families in my area and a couple of migrant children in both of my children’s classes.

Out of the 7 families at the school I know, the children’s parents are all working hard. One of the parents was a doctor in the Ukraine and is now working in a factory. One is a young mother who has left her husband in her home country to fight and is working long hours and getting support with childcare from her original host family who she no longer lives with. Both her parents were killed in her home country. I’m not talking bollocks, that is my experience.

I think you are forgetting that these are humans, what should they do stay in their own counties and watch their children suffer just because they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time?

The figure is for universal credit so does not include pension & child benefit etc. That would give a far higher number.

What OP doesn't state is that 83% of claimants are British born. So by far the biggest claimants of UC are british.

Why are you blaming the immigrants?

Immigrants don’t make the rules.
Immigrants don’t enforce or adjudicate the rules.
They don’t even have a vote on who is going to have the right to make the rules.

There is so much missing information.
Does the number include people born in the UK but not citizens
Does it include disability benefits for children, or maternity benefit?
What is the average length of time that someone is received benefits.

It seems to be selected and presented in a particular way.

I've reread this multiple times and now have a headache and I'm still not sure exactly what you're trying to say

As much as I despise him, Britain’s best chance of the main three parties is still Labour. We just need to hope that at some point he might consider governing the country, rather than simply reacting from focus groups related to Daily Mail headlines and Nigel Farage soundbites.

Good god most of you here are thick as pig shit. Get a grip. I am British and I can't even get back to my own country with my British child because I committed the sin of marrying a foreigner. I don't earn the 29k needed for him to stay in the country, also I would need to get that job before he could come over. How would that even work? If I came on my own I would be able to claim benefits and cost the country more. I'm obviously not going to do that because it would be massively traumatic for all of us if we separated from my son's father. All of you Brits, with your British spouse, imagine a year where you earned less than $29k(maybe a year you gave birth), then imagine them taking the father of your child away because of that. You need to research what it is like for immigrants and stop swallowing bullshit headlines. Can't any of you think for yourself?

And no, reform are not going to win the next election. Last lection, Labour and Tories got 81.8% of seats, and Reform got 0.8%. In what world would they win?

You can say that about most people though if you go back far enough.

@2021x

‘None of the people in the UK today were responsible for any of that’

This is what pisses me off.

We basically destroyed their country/way of living by imperialism and colonisation. We murdered, raped and destroyed with no respect. We took their oil/reserves and took power over them. They live in poverty as a result - and the wars that happen today happen as a result of our past arbitrary boundary setting.

So what? They should just get over it? We should not bother teaching history? Or just certain history that suits us and makes us look good e.g how great we were at winning WW2.

This really. We can’t, shouldn’t and tbh don’t want to save the world and that’s ok. We’re a tiny island with limited space and resources and it’s time we focused more on us and less on everyone else. On Mumsnet we’re always telling carers to look after themselves first as can’t pour tea from an empty teapot etc - the UK pot is running empty and we need to refocus is all.
its not racist or nationalist though nothing wrong with wanting the best for your country - it’s all we can do.

Anyone conflating illegal immigration with asylum seeking and legal immigration is being fundamentally dishonest.

I've got to wonder about the motivation of people doing that.

Stop with the rage bait!

1. Most of these people are Europeans that came here before Brexit and were always legally here. You know, when we had freedom of movement within Europe. When millions of Brits moved around in Europe too (like me!).

2. Most of them are on UC while IN WORK because our minimum wage isn't a living wage.

This.

I know an immigrant who claimed a benefit. Chinese, child benefit, no longer can claim the money element as both he and his wife earn six figures each in banking and pay the relevant tax for that.

Statistics can say whatever you need them to unless you apply critical thinking

That was the thinking in the past. We need to think differently. We need to protect our society with fair rules and humanity. We don’t have resources for all. We don’t have housing for all and everyone’s quality of life is decreasing because there are too many takers and not enough givers.

The NHS is propped up by immigrants. The UK would collapse if there were no immigrants who are the backbone of this country. The Daily Fail forgets that people were and still are recruited from abroad to work in jobs that the UK population don't want to do as it's hard work. The majority of people on benefits are the White British population. There are generations of people who have never worked!

I feel sure that I am spitting in the wind here, since most posters here seem to be entirely incapable of even reading the facts as presented by the Telegraph. We are NOT talking about "immigrants" (in the sense that most everyone here is doing) - we are talking about claims from foreign nationals, the vast majority of which have lived and worked in the UK for many years, and many continue to do so. The largest group of people claiming Universal Credit (if you don't count the 83.6% of British and Irish nationals) are from EUROPE, and the vast majority of those came to the UK to work prior to Brexit.

Being a foreign national does not mean you have not been in the UK for decades. Nor does it mean you don't work - Universal Credit is also payable to those on low income, and over 500,000 of those claiming UC are in IN WORK.

This. It's fucking heart-breaking.

UK citizens do not have the right to a family life.

We've got loads of space, HTH

While 6.6 million British citizens are also claiming Universal Credit, including 4.3 million who are unemployed, the scale of migrant participation in the benefit system has sparked calls for more transparency over how immigration and welfare policy interact.