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Benefits system is blamed for mass migration
BRITAIN'S benefits system is fuelling the large numbers of foreign workers coming to the country, a new study claims today.
Current handout levels leave little incentive for British families living on benefits to find a job, according to analysis by think tank Migrationwatch.
This, it says, is one of the reasons why 1.3 million immigrants have come to work in Britain n the past 10 years – while 3.5 million people are on Jobseekers Allowance or Incapacity Benefit.
Migrationwatch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green said: "We keep hearing that we need immigrants to do the jobs that the British won't do. It has been suspected for some time that benefit levels are a real disincentive to take work that is on offer and our research spells out why this may be so."
The study, published today, found a family with two children was only 30 a week better off on the minimum wage than not working.
If they are living in rented accommodation and receiving housing benefit, the worker keeps only between 4p and 10p in the pound of extra wages until his gross pay reaches 507 a week.
A single person under 25 has more incentive to work but, on the minimum wage of 193 per week, is still only 50 a week or 10 a day better off than a non- working person. If he is over 25 the difference is only 43 per week.
"There would be considerable benefits in getting our own population into work rather than encouraging immigration," the reports says.
The benefits include huge savings on the social security budget, less pressure on our infrastructure, less downward pressure on wages and a reduction in the non-working underclass it suggests.
Sir Andrew said there were several other factors. For example, British workers who have accommodation and perhaps children at school cannot be as mobile in search of work as immigrants. He added: "However, an
important factor is that wages are now so close to benefits that there is very little financial incentive for unskilled British workers to find a job.
"By contrast, Poles have very strong financial motivation. On the minimum wage in Britain they are earning four to five times what they would earn at home and, by living in multi-occupancy, they can afford to send considerable sums of money back to their families."
The Migrationwatch study also found a family with two children and one working member receives 79.50 in Working Tax Credit, intended to cushion the impact of means-testing of benefits and be an incentive to work. However Working Tax Credit itself is means-tested and is also treated as income for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. Overall this worker keeps only 6.77 of the 79.50.
All working families with children and one working member on the minimum wage are between 14 and 24 worse off than the same family receiving maximum Incapacity Benefit.
They remain worse off until the worker in the family earns 430 a week or 12.25 an hour. A single person on the minimum wage would be 3 a week better off than a single person on the highest level of Incapacity Benefit.
Sir Andrew continued: "The maximum level of Incapacity Benefit has effectively been brought very close to the minimum wage. There are good reasons of social equity for this but it does mean that there is very little financial incentive for such persons to return to paid employment, especially as they are allowed some earnings. This means it is particularly important to ensure that claimants are genuine cases.
"This problem of incentives is a perverse effect of attempts to lift families out of poverty. It is not the result of immigration but it is made more difficult by large- scale immigration which, according to the Bank of England, tends to hold down the wages of the lower paid.
"The risk is that we will develop an underclass of discouraged British workers."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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