The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120986 Message #2641441
Posted By: GUEST,Daily Mail reader
26-May-09 - 06:09 PM
Thread Name: BS: BNP: What would you do?
Subject: RE: BS: BNP: What would you do?
SPB,Maybe you could also give this consideration. Jan Mokrzycki, of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, said in the Daily Mail: 'We think lots of single people who came here may leave but the families will stay for as long as possible. Once they are set up they are qualified for benefits and support. Ania Heasley, who runs an employment agency and advice service for eastern Europeans in London, said Polish workers were becoming 'very well-versed' in the UK benefits system.
Any EU citizen who works here for 12 months can claim the full range of state benefits, including child and housing benefit, and jobseeker's allowance.
Lower benefits payments in Poland means there is 'no reason' for them to return home, he added. Child benefit for a first child in the UK is £20 per week - compared with £3 in Poland.
In the last quarter of 2008, Home Office figures show that 4,049 immigrants from the 'A8' eastern European states which joined the EU in 2004 applied for benefits in the UK - a rise of almost two thirds on the same period in 2007.
Britain's taxpayers are forking out more than £21million a year in child benefit for youngsters living in Poland, official figures reveal.
A loophole in EU regulations means migrants from other EU countries who are seeking work in the UK can claim state handouts for children they have left behind in their home countries.
The total benefits bill for the Treasury is likely to be closer to £50million a year when other Eastern European countries are included.
Britain's child benefit payments of £941 per year for a first child or £629 per year for younger siblings are far higher than the equivalent paymentsin Eastern European states that are new EU members.
The Polish benefits system, for example, pays a maximum of around £160 per year in child benefit.
Investigations have found that many workers moving to Britain are fraudulently claiming family benefits in both countries, exploiting lax checks and poor information sharing between member states.
Figures released by the Treasury in answer to Parliamentary written questions from the Conservatives show that at the end of September 26,000 Polish children from 16,286 families were being paid child benefits by UK taxpayers.
That means 16,286 first-born children were receiving the full £18.10 per week with the remaining 10,000 getting the lower payment of £12.10 per week.
The figures show that the number of claimants is soaring.
In June last year, the Treasury said 14,000 families from eight Eastern European states were claiming the benefits - around 10,000 were estimated to be Polish.