EU job seekers will have to wait three months to claim benefits from 2014
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that from next year EU job seekers will have to wait three months to claim out-of-work benefits.
Everyone coming to Britain should contribute. So from 1st Jan 2014, EU job-seekers will have to wait 3 months to claim out-of-work benefits.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 18, 2013
Yet immigrants are actually already less likely to claim benefits – and do make a net contribution to the Treasury.
Research by former HMRC official Michael O’Connor shows that migrant workers in the UK are far more likely to claim in-work benefits than out of work benefits.
They're far less likely than UK nationals to claim incapacity benefits, Jobseeker’s Allowance, lone parent or carer benefits, disability benefits, or bereavement benefits.
The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that the so-called net fiscal impact of immigrants was the equivalent of 0.46 per cent of GDP – billions of pounds – on average, from 2007-09.