The government has published its first ever estimates on the proportion of foreign-born people claiming working-age benefits in the UK, revealing that migrants are less likely to claim than UK nationals. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) research found that as of February 2011, 371,000 foreign nationals were among 5.5 million working-age benefit claimants, representing 6.4% of the total.
Almost 17% of British nationals receive these benefits compared with nearly 7% of non-UK nationals. More than half of the foreign-born claimants had become British citizens, granting them the same rights as native-born Britons. Working-age benefits include income support, jobseeker's allowance, carer's allowance, and disability living allowance.
A follow-up sample of 9,000 non-European migrants found that 98% of claims were valid, with 2% potentially invalid. However, the DWP noted that some of these may have lost entitlement after initially valid claims. The government does not produce comparable fraud figures for British-born claimants but estimates 2% of all payments are due to fraud or error.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling denied the report was scaremongering, stating it was important for the credibility of the benefits system. He said the government would investigate the 250,000 cases where nationality could not be identified. Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant criticised the figures, noting that over half of those counted were British citizens, and argued that migrants are more likely to be in work than British people.
