Jobless EU Migrants

[Workingman]

The government has announced plans for a three-month ban on claims for out-of-work benefits, for out of work benefits to be paid for only six months unless there is a realistic chance of a job, and to stop them getting housing benefit.

It looks like a good package to stem the EU flow to a trickle in a perfectly legal way, as other EU countries have always done. Why wasn't it done sooner - years ago?

The suspicions are that all the major parties want immigration; that their "concerns" are only weasel words to placate the electorate; and that these new measures have only been brought in because the rise of UKIP scares them to death.

[cromwell]

The suspicions are that all the major parties want immigration; that their "concerns" are only weasel words to placate the electorate; and that these new measures have only been brought in because the rise of UKIP scares them to death.

More of a certainty than a suspicion!

[Workingman]

What has got my back up about this is that it is all being done quite legally within an EU framework. That is the same EU we were always told was preventing any such moves.

Behind the scenes we have been quietly tweaking the benefits system, especially work benefits, for our own people. Our home-grown unemployed do not now automatically get a whole raft of benefits - they have to meet certain conditions. We now find, surprise surprise, shock horror, that we can apply some aspects of these new rules to EU migrants.

We could have done this years ago. We could have prevented millions of low-skill low-wage migrants from being here. We didn't do it because the politicians and businesses didn't want to. It was good for "the economy" and the EU provided a convenient screen to help it take place.

[TheOstrich]

We could have done this years ago. We could have prevented millions of low-skill low-wage migrants from being here. We didn't do it because the politicians and businesses didn't want to. It was good for "the economy" and the EU provided a convenient screen to help it take place.

I think that's spot on, especially judging by all the current bleats from those two areas. And in doing so, we have severely damaged the chances a generation of home-bred citizens securing a (low-skill, low-wage, but nevertheless a) job.

[Workingman]

We could have done this years ago. We could have prevented millions of low-skill low-wage migrants from being here. We didn't do it because the politicians and businesses didn't want to. It was good for "the economy" and the EU provided a convenient screen to help it take place.

I think that's spot on, especially judging by all the current bleats from those two areas. And in doing so, we have severely damaged the chances a generation of home-bred citizens securing a (low-skill, low-wage, but nevertheless a) job.

Not to mention the pressure migrants put on services, the NHS, housing, schools.........

[cromwell]

It is sometimes convenient for our politicians to let the EU shoulder the blame. Every mainstream party is in favour of mass immigration - they just don't like to say so!