20.01.14
Housing benefit scrapped for out-of-work EU migrants
From April, peoplecoming to the UK from the EU who cannot find work will no longer be able to receive housing benefit, the government has announced.
Home secretary Theresa May and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith set out the move in an article for the Daily Mail. It follows legislation to stop migrants claiming out-of-work benefits until they have been in the country for three months.
They said: “No longer can people come here from abroad and expect to get something for nothing.
“So we have tightened up the system... and the latest figures show our reforms are working. For those migrants who do come here, we're ensuring they are unable to take unfair advantage of our system by accessing benefits as soon as they arrive.
“For example, we introduced rules so that from 1 January this year we are banning individuals from receiving out-of-work benefits until they have been living in the UK for three months.
“And we will go still further: from the beginning of April we will be removing entitlement to housing benefit altogether for this group. In addition, EU migrants can only claim jobseeker's allowance for six months unless they have genuine prospects of finding work.
“These new immigration and benefit checks will clamp down on those trying to exploit the system.”
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