2015
Discrimination against
European Citizens in
the Housing Benefit
System
Presented at the European Commission
Representation in the UK by
Laurentiu Dumitru
The debate has become an increasingly depressing
one for supporters of free movement, with the UK's
major parties seemingly in an arms race in their antiimmigration rhetoric…
Mr Laurentiu Dumitru - Europeans Party
2/12/2015
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
Debating Points:
1. What are the New Rules of Housing Benefits?
2. European Court of Justice Pros and Cons
3.Understanding UK and EU Social Benefits laws
4.Are EU migrants entitled to the same benefits as citizens of the host
country?
5. The possible scale of discrimination
6. What is the likely outcome?
7. Conclusion
2|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
1. What are the New Rules of Housing Benefits?
According to Department for Work and Pensions,
New migrant jobseekers from the European Economic Area (EEA)
will no longer be able to get Housing Benefit (HB) from April, Work
and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced today (20
January 2014).
The government is determined to cap welfare and reduce immigration
as part of Britain’s long-term economic plan and ministers want to
make sure the system is fair for hard-working taxpayers.
From the start of April, new EEA jobseekers will no longer be able to
access Housing Benefit if they are claiming income-based Jobseeker’s
Allowance (JSA).
This builds on new rules introduced in January which
mean EEA migrants cannot claim income-based Jobseeker’s
Allowance until they have been in the country for three months.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said:
As part of the government’s long-term economic plan we have taken
action to make sure our economy delivers for people who want to
work hard and play by the rules.
These reforms will ensure we have a fair system – one which provides
support for genuine workers and jobseekers, but does not allow people
to come to our country and take advantage of our benefits system.
The British public are rightly concerned that migrants should
contribute to this country, and not be drawn here by the attractiveness
of our benefits system.
The Housing Benefit changes do not affect UK and Irish Republic
nationals, or EEA migrants genuinely self-employed or in a
job. EEAnationals who have been working in the UK, and are
subsequently made redundant and claim JSA, will not be affected by
this measure.
As part of the government’s long-term economic plan to get people
off benefits and into work, a series of reforms have been put in place
3|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
to make sure migrants wanting to come to this country do everything
they can to find a job and stay in work.
Other measures recently introduced include:
From 1 January 2015 all EEA jobseekers have to wait for 3 months
before they can get income-based JSA. This will make sure that only
people who have a clear commitment to the UK and plan to contribute
to the economy have access to our welfare system.
After 3 months, jobseekers will also have to take a stronger, more
robust Habitual Residence Test if they want to claim incomebased JSA.
If they pass the Habitual Residence Test, EEA jobseekers will then
only be able to get JSA for 6 months. After 6 months, only those who
have a job offer or compelling evidence that they have a genuine
chance of finding work will be able to continue claiming.
This week, the government will set out how reforms to welfare and
immigration are helping to build a stronger, more competitive,
economy that will secure a better future for Britain. Ministers are
determined to fix the welfare system to make sure more people can get
into work and benefit from the security that a job brings
4|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
2. European Court of Justice Pros and Cons
European Court of Justice rules States can exclude "benefit tourists"
from claiming certain social assistance
The European Court of Justice has In November 2014 ruled that
unemployed and economically inactive EU citizens who go to another
Member State solely in order to claim benefits can be excluded from
receiving certain social benefits.
The EU courts have ruled that it is up to the Government, not
Brussels, how it drafts legislation that that excludes foreign, European
nationals from claiming social assistance benefits.
The court pointed to safeguards in EU rules which it said aim to
"prevent economically inactive Union citizens from using the host
member state's welfare system to fund their means of subsistence".
National parliaments, the ruling stated, have the "competence to
define the extent of the social cover" offered in the form of certain
non-contributory benefits.
5|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
3.Understanding UK and EU Social Benefits laws
UK law makes certain residence-based social security benefits – Child
Benefit, Child Tax Credit, State Pension Credit, Income-based
Allowance for Jobseekers, Income-based Employment and Support
Allowance – only available to those persons who pass the ‘right to
reside test’ in the UK. This is because the British Government argues
that these particular benefits fall in to the first class of payments –
social assistance – and so can be legally fenced off through the right to
reside test.
The Commission on the other hand believes these payments are
actually social security benefits. The two family benefits should be
provided to all EU citizens employed in the UK, even if they don’t
reside there.
The other benefits should be made available, to all EU citizens that are
workers, direct family members of workers or non-active people that
are ‘habitually resident’ in the UK. The EU already has a strict,
standard, and approved ‘habitual residence test’ which is widely used
across Europe for migrants who want to claim residence-based social
security benefits.
6|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
4. The possible scale of discrimination
Polish Ambasador Witold Sobków said during BBC Radio 4’s
interview, what is true: “People do not come here for benefits. They
come here to work. The vast majority of migrants come to the UK to
work. This is what the report says. They have no idea about benefits.”
He addend: “Of course. We pay the same taxes which pay for tax
credits doing the same job. Imagine you have three people working for
the BBC, one from Spain, one from Poland and one from the UK.
They live here and they pay taxes here. Why should you discriminate
against the Spanish and the Polish worker? Give me one reason.”
EU spokesman Jonathan Todd has commented that potentially
thousands of EU nationals living legally in the UK may have been
refused access to benefits to which they are entitled.
The UK Government estimates there were some 2.3 million nationals
of other EU member states living in the UK in 2012.
Between 2009 and 2011, official figures show that benefits were
refused to over 28,000 EU migrants. Whilst acknowledging that a
number of those refusals would also have been refused under the EU’s
‘habitual residence test’, the EU Commission reports that it has
received many – and certainly more than just one from a Polish
painter – complaints from people who have lived, worked and paid
taxes in the UK and then been refused benefits when they were made
redundant.
7|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
5. Are EU migrants entitled to the same benefits as citizens of the host
country?
Yes, if they are workers or self-employed - and their family members
are entitled too. However, access to certain benefits can depend on the
amount of time a worker has been paying contributions. So a native of
the host country may have more entitlements.
Jobless migrants are not entitled to the same range of benefits - mainly
those which are funded from salary contributions. Workers pay social
security contributions, to cover sickness, unemployment, maternity or
paternity, invalidity or occupational injuries.
Anthea McIntyre MEP, the Conservative home affairs spokeswoman
in the European Parliament, said that the ECJ had ruled in favour of
"common sense".
"The court has made it clear that the original purpose of free
movement is to allow free movement of labour and not of benefits
tourists," McIntyre said.
"If people cannot support themselves or make a meaningful
contribution to the economy then they can have their benefits curbed,
even if they are non-contributory benefits."
The ruling comes in the wake of Prim-Minister David Cameron's
promise to crackdown on "benefit tourism".
The Pri-minister, writing in the Daily Telegraph earlier in the year,
said that EU arrivals to the UK would now only be able to claim
Jobseeker's Allowance or child benefit for a maximum of three
months, a reduction from the current six month period.
The Conservative Party leader said the move would send the message
to EU migrants that they "cannot expect to come to Britain and get
something for nothing".
8|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
6. What is the likely outcome?
Given the ‘right to reside test’ is automatically satisfied by returning
UK nationals (even if the ‘habitual residence’ test is not) the test – it
seems to me – is indirectly discriminatory, because UK nationals
clearly have less obligation to fulfill than non-UK EU nationals.
The question of whether the indirect discrimination is justified was
considered domestically by the Supreme Court in Patmalneice vs
SSWP in 2011. In that case the Supreme Court said yes it was
justified; in order to stop benefit tourism and protect the UK’s purse.
But, Lord Walker dissented in that judgement and said the reason the
test was imposed was to discriminate against economically inactive
non-UK nationals. The increasingly ideological sound bites from the
Tory administration (Grant Schapps threats to the BBC over its
coverage of ‘health tourism being the latest) and the most recent
ruling from the European Court of Justice, would tend to support Lord
Walkers view - the test as framed and imposed is designed to
discriminate –and cannot be justified as a necessary or proportionate
response given the overwhelming evidence that ‘benefit tourism’ is
neither systematic nor widespread (see page 276 of EU report into
“benefit tourism”)
In British media we fund, that British Prime Minister David Cameron
welcomed the ruling, describing it as "simple common sense".
Meanwhile German MEP Manfred Weber, the leader of the main
conservative group in the European Parliament, told the Associated
Press news agency that the decision proved EU countries could "avoid
social benefits tourism without violating the free movement of
citizens".
"It sends a clear signal to the member states and to the British prime
minister in particular."
No discrimination
9|Page
EUROPEANS PARTY: Discrimination against European Citizens in the Housing Benefit System
The UK government has already tightened the rules so EU migrants
have to wait three months after arriving in the UK before they can
claim child benefit and child tax credits.
Migrants are also barred from claiming jobseeker's allowance after
three months if they are not looking for work, and the prime minister
has called for reforms to the principle of free movement of people
within the EU.
The European Commission said it had consistently stressed that
freedom of movement of people was about the right of circulation, not
about an unrestricted right to claim benefits.
It said it supported action by member states to tackle abuse of the
benefits system by migrants.
8. In conclusion.
Although looking at the figures, it's likely the court's ruling will make
little difference to public finances or the welfare roles either way. EU
migrants are mostly young and looking to work, so very few claim
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or other working-age benefits. Of the
1.1m people claiming JSA just 38,580 come from the EU.
This is unfair capaign against European Union Citizens, recidents in
the UK that worked for many years in this country. Some EU workers
who have paid taxes the same as anyone else, lost their job now, they
are left out and their house benefits request are being rejected or
forgotten. This campaing is becouse European Union Citizens cannot
vote in General Election and some british political parties believes
they need to target EU citizen in order to get British votes on their
side.
10 | P a g e