Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
A significant portion of the savings proposed by Reform in its planned spending cuts would come from removing benefit eligibility for foreign nationals. According to the group, excluding non-citizens from receiving benefits such as Universal Credit (UC) could contribute approximately £20 billion towards their overall £50 billion savings goal.
Currently, over one million Universal Credit claimants were born outside the UK. This figure includes nearly 700,000 EU nationals who arrived prior to Brexit and possess the right to live and work within the country. Notably, about half of these EU citizenship claimants are employed. However, the government has not released data on the number of foreign nationals claiming other forms of benefits.
Implementing such restrictions is not straightforward due to potential complications with the European Union. Approximately 4.5 million EU nationals hold settled status in the UK, entitling them to claim benefits. At the same time, around one million UK nationals residing across the EU enjoy similar entitlements. If the UK were to withdraw benefit access from EU nationals, it could provoke reciprocal measures by EU member states, potentially affecting UK citizens living abroad.
Reform acknowledges that achieving these cuts may require renegotiating the post-Brexit agreement that established these rights, a process thought finalized in 2020. Further complexity arises from the possibility that many EU nationals might pursue British citizenship to retain their benefit claims, which could undermine the expected savings outlined in Reform’s plan
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.