28 November 2014updated 24 Jul 2021 2:01am

What are EU migrants entitled to in terms of benefits and housing, and when?

David Cameron wants to delay benefits to EU migrants for four years, Labour for two years. What are they currently entitled to, when, and how much do they claim?

By Anoosh Chakelian

(Photo By Prime Minister David Cameron at a property where six illegal immigrants were arrested this week. Photo: Getty)

Upon arriving in this country, what can EU migrants receive in terms of benefits, and when?

The government has recently introduced harsher rules for what EU migrants can receive. These include jobseekers from the European Economic Area (EEA) – predominantly migrants from EU states – having to wait three months before they can claim for Jobseekers’ Allowance. This is the same for accessing child benefit and child tax credits.

To stay longer than three months, they have to be in work, actively seeking work, or have a genuine chance of being hired. Either that, or they have to prove that they have the resources to remain without being a burden on public services.

EU migrants cannot automatically claim benefits after three months. They have to pass a “habitual residence test” under EU law. This covers the individual’s status regarding their duration of stay, activity, income if they are students, family status, and housing situation. Even if they pass this, they can then only claim Jobseekers’ Allowance for six months – after that, only those with a job offer or proof they are likely to find work are allowed to continue claiming.

On top of the tests required under EU law, the UK applies an additional test: the “right to reside”. This limits certain benefits. The European Commission sees this as an unfair extra hurdle and has referred the UK to the EU’s Court of Justice on the matter.

How many of them are housed by the state?

There are similar levels of UK nationals and foreign-born individuals living in social housing: 17 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. It is not the case that immigrants receive preferential treatment on council housing lists.

The immigrant population is almost three times as likely to be in the private rental sector than their UK-born neighbours: 38 per cent compared to 14 per cent.

From April this year, new EEA migrant jobseekers have no longer been allowed housing benefit.

The housing minister Brandon Lewis commented:

Foreign nationals coming to the UK should be under no illusion that they will get free housing if they fall on hard times. They will find no stepping stones to a social home, because we’ve changed the rules so local people have priority.

Can they bring family over?

Yes, providing their family members are EU citizens. They will be subject to the same scrutiny as outlined above.

How many migrants are in employment?

The latest DWP figures from 2014 show that there are 1.73m EU nationals working in the UK, equal to 5.7 per cent of all people in work. There are 1.19m non-EU nationals working in the UK, which is 3.9 per cent.

The employment rate for non-UK born workers is 70 per cent, compared to the 73.2 per cent of UK born workers. The employment rate for EU nationals living in the UK is 79 per cent. This is according to the latest figures, from the April-June 2014 Labour Force Survey.

The UK is the only EU country to have a lower unemployment rate for migrants than nationals (7.5 per cent to 7.9 per cent respectively), suggesting a key reason for migration to the UK is to find work.

Since the early 2000s, the presence of foreign-born workers has grown fastest in relatively low-skilled jobs.

How many of them claim benefits?

Less than 5 per cent of EU migrants are claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance, while less than 10 per cent are claiming other DWP working-age benefits.

On top of this, the think tank Class found that of those who claim Jobseekers’ Allowance, 91.5 per cent are UK nationals. Additionally, among unemployed migrants, only 1 per cent claim unemployment benefits, compared to the 4 per cent of unemployed UK nationals who are claimants.

Rather than being “benefit tourists”, migrants to the UK make a net contribution, as they pay more in taxes than they take out in benefits. A UCL study this month found that the UK gains £20bn from European migrants. And a study by the OECD last year found that migrants make a net contribution of over £2000 per head.

Sources: Spokespeople at the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for Communities and Local Government; European Commission report, 2012 https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/economic_paper/2012/pdf…4_en.pdf; the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford; the Migration Matters Trust; the Office of National Statistics; the Refugee Council; Turn2Us; the BBC; British Future; Class report Why immigration is good for all of us https://classonline.org.uk/docs/why_immigration_is_good_for_all_of_us.pdf; House of Commons Library: Asylum Statistics, 5 August 2014 file:///Users/anooshchakelian/Downloads/SN01403%20(1).pdf; Eurostat statistics; OECD International Migration Outlook 2013 https://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/international-migration-outlook-2013_migr_outlook-2013-en#page1