Migrants from the eight countries which joined the EU in 2004 will be able to claim full benefits in the UK for the first time from May.
Estimates in The Times suggest as many as 100,000 migrants could claim tens of millions of pounds in benefits.
But the Department for Work and Pensions insisted strict rules would remain in place to prevent abuse and stop "benefit tourism".
The long-expected relaxation in the rules is down to European law.
Giving migrants from the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - the so-called A8 countries - entitlement to a range of benefits was a condition of the 2004 accession treaty admitting these countries to the EU.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12633382
Time for the UK to leave the EU
Time for the UK to leave the EU
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
Do they even drink tea?
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
Can you really leave? We fought a pretty bitter and costly war to keep some of our sister commonwealths/republics in our federated union. You're really civilized enough to permit those who joined to change their minds and leave?
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
What? You mean the flat tax implemented in Estonia, Latvia, et al and touted as being the makings of an economic miracle didn't actually work, and there are now tens of thousands of people from those countries ready to flee and make their home in the quintessential welfare state? Who'da thunk it?
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
Big RR wrote:Can you really leave? We fought a pretty bitter and costly war to keep some of our sister commonwealths/republics in our federated union. You're really civilized enough to permit those who joined to change their minds and leave?
Yep, the UK leaving the EU has been on the cards since we joined. It's one of the reasons the UK never signed up for the Euro.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
So they've had nearly 40 years to decide...
Alarm bells should have been ringing back in the '60s when the frogs vetoed Britain as a member...
Alarm bells should have been ringing back in the '60s when the frogs vetoed Britain as a member...
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
40? the EU isn't that old
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: Time for the UK to leave the EU
It goes back to the "common market" (European Coal and Steel Community) as it was originally called, C-P.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#History
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”