Benefits being claimed by more than 370000 migrants - BBC News

20 January 2012 Last updated at 00:05 ET

Work-related benefits were being claimed last year by more than 370,000 migrants who originally came to the UK to work, study or visit, the first research of its kind has shown.

The government matched benefit, border control and tax records from 2011.

A look at a sample of 9,000 claimants of certain nationalities found 2% were illegally claiming benefits.

Ministers said it was unacceptable for people to claim benefits in the UK without having worked or paid tax here.

BBC correspondent Naomi Grimley says the government admits it found only a tiny number of cases where migrants were claiming illegally, but the research is likely to prompt a wider debate about whether the welfare system has become too generous and attracted so-called "benefit tourists".

Before the coalition government came to power the nationality of benefit claimants was not recorded.

The first detailed "data-matching" was carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the UK Border Agency and HM Revenue and Customs.

The research found:

• As of February 2011, 371,000 people - out of a total of 5.5?million - claiming working-age benefits had been non-UK nationals when they first registered for a National Insurance Number
• Of these, 258,000 were from outside the European Economic Area (non-EAA)
• Of this figure, 54% were now British citizens and most others had an immigration status that meant they were eligible for benefits
• What the government calls working-age benefits include jobseeker's allowance, income support, carer's allowance and disability living allowance, among others.

A follow-up sample looked at 9,000 non-EEA nationals, three-quarters of whose records were able to be matched.

Of those matched, 98% were entitled to benefits but 2% appeared to have "no lawful immigration status".

The "small number" of cases is being investigated, the DWP said.

The government also said it was looking at ways to record nationality "at source" and at better tracking of the immigration status of claimants.

'Root out'

Mr Grayling said: "It is not acceptable that people from other countries can claim our benefits if they have not worked or paid tax in the UK.

"We will root out those claimants who cannot prove their immigration status and in turn they will be stripped of their benefits.

"I was shocked to discover that the current system does not record the nationality of benefit claimants and we are urgently taking steps to make sure we know exactly how many non-UK nationals are claiming UK benefits."

Earlier this month the government's official advisers on migration said there was a link between immigration from outside the European Union and job losses among UK workers.

The Migration Advisory Committee said there were 23 fewer UK jobs for every 100 migrants from outside the EU.

But a separate report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said immigration had had little impact.