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Press Releases for January 2008
January 14, 2008
In response to a request from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee who are investigating the economic impact of immigration, Mig
January 7, 2008
Migrationwatch issued today January, 7 a commentary on the Item Club "Special report on migration and the UK economy" released on 18 January, 2008.
January 2, 2008
UK benefits system linked to immigrant workers says report
Full Text of Releases : January 2008
January 14, 2008
In response to a request from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee who are investigating the economic impact of immigration, Mig
Commenting on the government's earlier written evidence Migrationwatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green said that once again the Government had failed to make a convincing case for levels of immigration which are 25 times higher than at any time in nearly a thousand years of our history.
‘In their evidence they reiterated many of their previous arguments which have been shown to be wrong, misleading or irrelevant.
‘In our view they have completely failed to prove that the overall economic benefit of migration is other than extremely small – especially when set against the implications for our environment and quality of life of adding 18 million to our population in the next fifty years.
‘It is significant that the economic ‘benefits’ are trumpeted by the government at every opportunity but extremely little is ever heard of the ‘costs’ – such as the enormous addition to future infrastructure requirements in order to build the millions of houses required for new immigrants and the extra pressure on schools, transport and health – that will have massive ramifications for everyone living in this country for decades to come.’
Sir Andrew said that we are already very nearly the most crowded country in Europe. 70% of our population increase is due to immigration.
‘We cannot allow this to continue,’ he said. ‘Our objective now must be a broad balance between immigration and emigration.’
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January 7, 2008
Migrationwatch issued today January, 7 a commentary on the Item Club "Special report on migration and the UK economy" released on 18 January, 2008.
Said chairman Sir Andrew Green: 'This report is very far from an objective assessment of the issue from a body which openly favours "open doors to economic migrants", despite the highest levels of immigration in our history. This is despite some of the findings in their own report - particularly the small or even negative impact on GDP per head and the increase of 100,000 in youth unemployment since 2004. As usual, they completely ignore the impact on housing, schools, hospitals and the strains on community cohesion which should surely be included in the balance sheet.'
See Migrationwatch Commentary
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January 2, 2008
UK benefits system linked to immigrant workers says report
Evidence that the system of social security benefits is one factor in attracting large numbers of foreign workers to the UK has come from a new study out today.
An in depth analysis of the operation of the current benefit system, by think tank Migrationwatch, has shown that the effect of benefit levels combined with means testing of benefits for those who are working means that there is little financial incentive for people with families living on benefits to find employment. This may partly explain why, despite there being 3.5 million people on Jobseekers Allowance or Incapacity Benefit, some 1.3 million immigrants have come to work in the UK in the past ten years.
There would be considerable benefits in getting our own population into work rather than encouraging immigration says the report.
These include:
- huge savings on the social security budget
- an increase in GDP per head (i.e. higher production without higher population).
- less pressure on our infrastructure
- less downward pressure on low wages
- a reduction in the non working underclass
Said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman Migrationwatch UK: ‘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,’ he said.
Sir Andrew said that there were a number of other factors. For example, British workers who have accommodation and, perhaps, children at school, cannot be as mobile in search of work as immigrants.
‘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 4-5 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 - according to the National Bank of Poland, Polish migrants in the UK are sending home about £9 million a day,’ said Sir Andrew.
The paper gives a number of examples:
A family with two children is just £30 a week better off working on the minimum wage than not working. If they are in rented accommodation and receiving housing benefit the worker keeps only between 4p and 10p in the pound of extra wages above the minimum wage 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.
A family with two children and one working member receives £79.50 of 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 means testing 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 slightly worse off (by £14 -£24) than the same family receiving the 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.
Said Sir Andrew: ‘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’, he added.
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