Greens welcome new report showing net contribution of EU nationals in UK

At an event yesterday in the European Parliament to launch a new report, [1] Jean Lambert said of the study:

This study shows, yet again, that the Government’s portrayal of EU nationals in the UK as being takers rather than givers is just not backed by evidence.

Covering the period from 2007 – 2013, the findings from four countries: the UK, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands shows that EU migrants made a positive contribution to their respective state budgets. The total taxes paid in exceeded the total benefits received by EU migrants by between 0.2 and 0.9 % of GDP, on conservative estimates.

Directly responding to some member states, the UK included, who want to restrict the right to free movement of people in the EU, the new report from the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) [2] further showed that:

·      EU migrants received, on average, 50% less in terms of social benefit expenditure than the average citizen of the countries studied

·      Even when pension-related benefits and contributions are not taken into account, the net positive contribution remains for the UK

Hosting the launch event in the European Parliament, Green London MEP Jean Lambert concluded:

While these findings are welcome the conclusion isn’t new, and you certainly wouldn’t know it based on the reporting of the mainstream UK press.

If the Prime Minister really wants to reduce benefit payments, he should concentrate on ensuring people are paid decent wages so they don’t need state top-ups. Pay is a national responsibility.

[1] http://www.ecas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Fiscal-Impact-of-EU-migrants.pdf

[2] http://www.ecas.org/

At an event yesterday in the European Parliament to launch a new report, [1] Jean Lambert said of the study:
‘This study shows, yet again, that the Government’s portrayal of EU nationals in the UK as being takers rather than givers is just not backed by evidence.’
Covering the period from 2007 – 2013, the findings from four countries: the UK, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands shows that EU migrants made a positive contribution to their respective state budgets. The total taxes paid in exceeded the total benefits received by EU migrants by between 0.2 and 0.9 % of GDP, on conservative estimates.
Directly responding to some member states, the UK included, who want to restrict the right to free movement of people in the EU, the new report from the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) [2] further showed that:

• EU migrants received, on average, 50% less in terms of social benefit expenditure than the average citizen of the countries studied

• Even when pension-related benefits and contributions are not taken into account, the net positive contribution remains for the UK

Hosting the launch event in the European Parliament, Green London MEP Jean Lambert concluded:
‘While these findings are welcome the conclusion isn’t new, and you certainly wouldn’t know it based on the reporting of the mainstream UK press.
‘If the Prime Minister really wants to reduce benefit payments, he should concentrate on ensuring people are paid decent wages so they don’t need state top-ups. Pay is a national responsibility.’
-ends-
Notes To Editors
[1] http://www.ecas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Fiscal-Impact-of-EU-migrants.pdf
[2] http://www.ecas.org/
- See more at: http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/2014/11/13/eu-migrants-pay-take-another-study-finds/#sthash.OeInKzTv.dpuf

New English Language Class at Chalkhill Community Centre

Want to improve your English? ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class 4 hours a week starting 23rd September in Chalkhill Community Centre with a free crèche for young children age 0-5 years (subject to availability)

To join the class you first need to do our ESOL test on Wednesday 10^th September 10am-4pm at Chalkhill Community Centre, Welford Centre, 113 Chalkhill Road,  HA9 9FX (5 minutes walk from Wembley Park tube or there’s parking 300 yards away further in from the main road).

When you come to the test please bring:

         Proof of benefit

        Proof of immigration status (if you have not lived in the EU for the last 3 years)

The class itself runs every Tuesday and Thursday from 12-2pm starting 23^rd September.

Preference may be given to Chalkhill residents. The course is usually free if you’ve lived in the European Union for 3 years and are on benefits and unemployed and want to get a job.

For more information contact Sally Wasser 020 8937 6560/3890  Sally.wasser@brent.gov.uk   or   Nita Lewis    on nita.lewis@brent.gov.uk

Making sure unemployed workers are no 'push over' or 'sanctions fodder'

Spreading the word

Guest blog by Alan Wheatley of the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

One of our statements/slogans is 'Benefiting Brent & Camden & Beyond'. The major focus in our weekly business meetings is casework. It's a great 'crowd gatherer' to the point that our meetings attract as many as 12 on a regular basis, with some coming from as far away as Hackney, Wandsworth and Bromley though our core is predominantly from the boroughs of Brent and Camden. We are also very ethnically diverse, with African-Caribbean, Indian/White British mixed race, Serbian and Greek representation. We are also well-balanced by gender, and while most are disabled we also have people not applying for disability benefits. In more of an andragogy  LINK of the oppressed than a pedagogy LINK, our casework sessions reflect the fact that we've 'all been there' and can pool our knowledge and expertise in response to what is thrown at us by increasingly oppressive jobcentre workers and privatised contractors.

ARE THEY TAKING THE PISS OR TRYING TO DRAW BLOOD?

 The armoury of tactics and strategies that jobcentre and privatised contractor staff throw at JSA, Work Programme and ex-Work Programme clients to make them sanctions fodder include the entrapment of getting them to fill in their personal details and signature on forms before whatever they are supposed to be agreeing to has been written yet, or the staff member obscuring everything but the signature space. Yet another ploy that is becoming more and more the norm for people who have been parked on the Work Programme for a year is to be told to apply for as many as 14 jobs per week and to sign on at the jobcentre not just fortnightly but five days a week!

How many hours per week would a quality processing of one job application per week take? Multiply that by even 7 and add the practicalities of signing on five days per week and would you not be working more than a 48 hour EU Working Time Directive week? And people re-registering at the jobcentre after being 'parked' on the Work Programme for a year are also told to show their last six months bank statements.(1)

Yet this is abuse that follows on from a year of neglect. Consider the bargaining power issues in the fact that the claimant has no real bargaining power and their 'client adviser' at the Work Programme company can have as many as 250 people on their caseload.(2) But a counter-response that the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is finding increasingly effective is to make sure that a person going for, say, a re-registration interview at the jobcentre does not go alone. We reckon that that kind of 'first aid' makes whatever follow-up tribunal action less taxing or even unnecessary. The oppressor — who has probably been threatened with being sanctioned themselves if they do not meet targets — realises that the person in front of them is not 'a push over'.(3)

Notes:
(1) See reference to 'payment-by-results' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_Programme_%28United_Kingdom
 (2) http://indusdelta.co.uk/discussion/work_programme_case_loads/6453
(3) Some abusers arguably do not need to be threatened with sanctions to collude in the sanctioning of benefit claimants. Perhaps what Transline are more concerned about in the case of their worker Kelly Stone is that she broke 'commercial confidentiality' rather than that she delighted in a sense of the negative influence she could have on others' lives? http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/recruitment-worker-kelly-stone-suspended-2162766

Pub Quiz fundraiser for Brent Housing Action on Monday

London Councils calls for London to be treated as a'special case' on benefit reform

London Councils released a report yesterday  that tracks the impact of benefit reforms and suggests Londoners will be hardest hit by the changes.

The report indicates that up to half-a-million working age people could be touched in some way when the changes take effect this year. It estimates that 27,000 households in London will be affected by the benefit cap alone, due to be piloted in four boroughs from April.

An additional 456,000 Londoners will pay more council tax as a result of council tax benefit payments moving to council control, with reduced funding. And up to 80,000 homes could be adversely affected by the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ designed to deal with under occupancy in social housing.

Mayor Sir Steve Bullock, London Councils’ Executive Member for Housing, said:

While we recognise the need for reform, councils across London have concerns about the speed this is being implemented and the effect on families of so many changes taking place at once. I want to see London treated as a special case as the process moves forward.

For some ordinary families with two children looking for work their benefit could drop £183.00 per week, while an identical family unit in Manchester would be unaffected.

London Councils supports a fairer, more accountable system of welfare that encourages work. But since changes to housing benefits in April 2011 the number of households claiming housing benefit for private rented housing in London rose by over 32,000. Rents went up by nine per cent for the most basic housing in that period and this is increasingly a London issue.

The report, Tracking Welfare Reform, is available on the London Councils website LINK  along with a wide range of research and background materials.