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Big welfare cuts if you're not British
Joe Murphy, Political Editor20 Feb 2008
Benefits are to be linked to British citizenship for the first time.
People who are denied a passport will also lose the right to a range of welfare handouts, including child benefit, housing benefit and income support.
In a massive extension of what Gordon Brown this afternoon called "earned citizenship", criminals who serve time in prison will automatically lose their chance to qualify for British nationality.
Serious offenders will be deported while less serious ones will lose their right to citizenship and the benefits it offers.
The dramatic steps to end the something-for-nothing society were announced in a government paper and a speech by the Prime Minister.
Mr Brown set out to answer growing voter anger at what is seen as unfair milking of public services and state welfare by migrant workers by putting pressure on them to become full citizens, while also introducing new tests to make them "prove their worth".
Applicants will have to prove they are contributing to the community, such as by carrying out voluntary work, and will also be tested in English language and the British way of life. Currently, migrant workers are automatically given indefinite leave to remain after they have worked here for five years, and enjoy almost all the advantages of full citizenship, including entitlement to welfare benefits including tax credits, housing benefits, income support and child benefit.
In future, that status will go, to be replaced by a new form of "probationary citizenship" with no right to non-contributory benefits.
Migrants will have from a year to a maximum of five years to prove they deserve citizenship under tests. Unveiling the plans in the Commons, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she wanted to end the situation where foreign nationals "languish in limbo" by living here but not adapting to the British way of life.
She said: "I would want to see a larger proportion of those that are here moving to full British citizenship. You will not be able to languish in limbo. Once your period of temporary residence comes to an end you will need to apply for the next stage or leave." The rules will not apply to Europeans - including those from the eastern European countries which recently joined the EU.
In addition, visa fees will be raised by an estimated £20 a head to raise a token £15million extra to meet the cost of providing public services, such as schooling and health treatment, which are given to all residents and migrants on the basis of need.
That, however, was dismissed as a "gimmick" by the Tories who called for an annual limit on immigration.
Mr Brown has long said he wants to make citizenship a more meaningful concept that carries a requirement to integrate with the wider community.
Reader views (8)
He should have consulted the 'Rights Police' before uttering all this drivel. He will be challenged in the courts at every step if he attempts to withhold benefits from anybody. Anyway, millions are already here claiming all sorts of benefits like the Gambian woman who claimed for 18 children she does not have!, all because she has a Swedish passport. Why is she not in Sweden fleecing them? Because they would probably ask to see birth certificates, etc.
- Beatriz, London, 21/02/2008 12:09
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Is citizenship really the right way to decide if one should have access to basic state benefits or not? Having lived in the UK for over ten years and each year paid over £40,000 in taxes, one would expect to have some rights? Thinking all immigrants are just milking the system is quite a simplification of the system - as many British passport holders do not contribute much either ...
- Jakob, London, 21/02/2008 11:51
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Oh Yeah, and pigs will fly!
- Brian, Wiltshire, 21/02/2008 10:42
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Everything that comes out of this man's mouth should be treated as utter drivel, not one single promise he's made has been realised as yet, he even makes the previous PM look good after 10 years of running the country into the ground.
- T Blair, Westminster, 21/02/2008 10:02
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This is a gimmick on many levels.
1. This will be a way around the huge number of illegals in the UK. "You've kept your nose clean for five years, here's a passport." Massive reduction in illegals overnight.
2. Why should we hand out British passports at all?
3. Why should obtaining such a document entitle you to anything?
4. £20 entry levy is a joke. Only allow people in if they can fully support themselves.
5. Brown's Britishness agenda is just there to stop any debate on an English only parliament following Labour's botched devolution bill. Few, if any, of these immigrants end up in Scotland, Wales or NI and anybody will realise that the vast majority of these economic migrants and illegals are centred in around London and the South-East.
Perhaps we should follow the Albanians in Kosovo and declare independence from the Union and get our country back.
- Mark, South-East London, 21/02/2008 09:57
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More smoke blown over a wilfully negligent open door to exploited people as fodder for the black economy which still keeps the Brown economy afloat.
It will not survive the first legal challenge.
- Jack, London, 21/02/2008 09:42
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Further empty rhetoric, spin and window dressing by a government that has lost the plot. Like so many other announcements carefully thought through to try and give the impression of action and activity this will amount to very little. The article omits to mention - probably because the government omitted to mention - that EC citizens (who have been the source of all of the the press excitement in the past two years) do not need to obtain British citizenship to live here and obtain virtually all of the benefits of having citizenship.
- Paul Bliss, Hampton, 20/02/2008 23:31
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Another talk tough day from Gordon Brown. Talk is cheap because the supply always exceeds the demand. The first time they try to actually implement this, the Human Rights Act will be brought in and it will bite the dust. Government departments seem to have grown exponentially as opposed to their efficiency. We now have the case of discs sent to us on criminals that nobody could be bothered to look at for a year. Do they actually do anything but count the days left to their retirement and their fat pensions.
- Patricia, London, 20/02/2008 21:24
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