370000 Migrants Now Claim Benefits

370000 Migrants Now Claim Benefits.

Research has shown that 370,000 migrants who originally came to the UK to work, study or visit were claiming work-related benefits last year.  From a sample of 9,000 claimants of certain nationalities revealed that 2% were illegally claiming benefits.

This is the first detailed "data-matching" survey, carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the UK Border Agency and HM Revenue and Customs.  

The research has found that as of February 2011, 371,000 people out of a total of 5.5 million claiming working-age benefits had been non-UK nationals when they first registered for a National Insurance Number.   Of these, 258,000 were from outside the European Economic Area (non-EAA) and from this figure, 54% were now British citizens and most others had an immigration status that meant they were eligible for benefits.

According to ministers, it is not acceptable that people from other countries can claim our benefits if they have not worked or paid tax in the UK.  The government has stated it is looking at ways to record nationality "at source" and at better tracking of the immigration status of claimants.