UK: Welfare Cuts Push Millions into Poverty

A new report has called on the British government to raise taxes on wealthier citizens in order to fight poverty.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that 13 million British people live in poverty - and more than one million are destitute.

Al Jazeera’s UK correspondent Barnaby Phillips reports from Peterborough.

Wives with Benefits: Immigrants with More Than One Spouse Win Extra Payments under New Reforms

BREITBART.COM: Immigrants with many wives stand to make substantial financial gains under looming changes to Britain’s welfare system.

Polygamous marriages, which form a common thread in Islam, are recognised in Britain but only if they take place in countries where they are legal. Now a House of Commons library paper, published earlier this month, has highlighted a loophole that will allow additional wives coming to the UK to claim a full single person’s allowance while the husband and his first wife still receive their respective benefits. » | Simon Kent | Sunday, January 24, 2016

New Cardinal Vincent Nichols: Welfare Cuts ‘Frankly a Disgrace’

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the leader of Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, condemns Government's austerity programme as a ‘disgrace’ for leaving poor facing ‘destitution’

Read the Telegraph article here | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Friday, February 14, 2014

Benefits 'To Be Stripped from Immigrants Who Cannot Speak English'

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron intends to make the cuts in order to slash the country’s welfare bill, according to reports

Benefits will be stripped from immigrants who cannot speak English, it has been reported.

David Cameron intends to make the cuts in order to slash the country’s welfare bill, according to the Mail on Sunday.

The Prime Minister reportedly wants to stop printing welfare literature in foreign languages and prevent claimants using taxpayer-funded translators at benefits offices.

According to the newspaper the measures, which were due to be announced on Monday, have been delayed following a row with Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister.

It is hoped the scrapping of foreign-language documentation explaining how to claim benefits will make it harder for immigrants to make use of the UK’s benefits system, while encouraging those already in the country to learn English. The measures would also save the money spent on translators. » | James Edgar | Sunday, January 19, 2014

Italian MP 'Blacks Up' in Parliament in Anti-immigration Tirade

Northern League politician blacks up, saying that all white Italians should do the same so as to receive benefits, free housing and preferential treatment African migrants do

Read the Telegraph article here | Nick Squires, Rome | Thursday, January 16, 2014

George Osborne Accused of 'Patronising' Stay-at-home Mothers

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: George Osborne has been accused of "patronising" stay-at-home mothers after saying that they have made a "lifestyle choice" and should not receive childcare vouchers.


The Chancellor today unveiled a scheme to encourage women back into the workplace by handing up to £1,200 of taxpayer-funded childcare for each child to families where both parents have a job.

He said that he had "huge respect" for stay-at-home mothers and said that the government will "help" their families by introducing tax breaks for married couples.

However Laura Perrins, a stay-at-home mother who took on the Deputy Prime Minister during a radio phone earlier this year, said that the reported £120 tax breaks were "pathetic" compared to the value of childcare vouchers.

She said: "Saying stay-at-home mothers have made a lifestyle choice is pejorative and patronising. They are contributing to the economy, to society, to everything. Staying at home is not a luxury, it's not a hobby. Women who chose to stay at home make huge sacrifices. » | Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent | Monday, August 05, 2013

Related »

Choudary ‘To Lose Benefits’

Blitz on preachers of hate
THE SUN: HATE clerics like Anjem Choudary may soon lose benefits.

Any claimant whose behaviour is ruled to be deeply offensive or harmful to society would be stripped of their handouts under a new law planned by ministers.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s move is aimed at extremists like Choudary — and hate preacher Abu Qatada, who is fighting deportation.

IDS met Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday to plot a joint approach.

Choudary scoops up nearly £26,000 in state giveaways a year — leading to accusations British taxpayers are being forced to fund terrorism. » | Tom Newton Dunn | Thursday, June 06, 2013

THE SUN: Serial offender – The case against Anjem Choudary » | Stephen Moyes, Dan Sales and Neil Syson | Thursday, June 06, 2013

Economic Crisis Fueling Racism Says Council of Europe
EXPATICA.COM: The ongoing economic crisis has fueled racism and xenophobia, a Council of Europe report said on Thursday, while calling on European nations to bolster their fight against hate speech.

"Welfare cuts, diminished job opportunities and a consequent rise in intolerance towards both immigrant groups and older historical minorities are worrying trends," the report by the Strasbourg-based body's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance said.

"Xenophobic rhetoric is now part of mainstream debate and extremists are increasingly using social media to channel their views, whilst discrimination against the Roma continues to worsen," the commission's report noted. » | AFP | Thursday, May 03, 2012

370,000 Migrants On the Dole
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: More than 370,000 migrants who were admitted to Britain to work, study or go on holiday are now claiming out-of-work benefits, according to official figures compiled for the first time.

The migrants, who can claim unemployment, housing and incapacity benefit, are costing taxpayers billions of pounds a year.

In other countries, many would have had to return home after their visas expired or their employment ended.

The figures are likely to reopen the debate over the generosity of the welfare system amid growing concerns that the country has become a destination for “benefit tourists”.

In an article for today’s Daily Telegraph, Chris Grayling, the employment minister, and Damian Green, the immigration minister, say that the large number of migrants now claiming benefits has been increased by the “organisational chaos” of Britain’s immigration system.

“It should never have been allowed to happen and Labour should be embarrassed by what it left behind,” they add. Read on and comment » | Robert Winnett, Political Editor | Thursday, January 19, 2012

Brussels Threatens to Sue Britain to Let in 'Benefit Tourists'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The European Commission has threatened to take legal action against Britain if ministers do not water down rules limiting foreigners’ ability to claim benefits.

Ministers fear the move could leave taxpayers handing out as much as £2.5  billion to EU nationals, including out-of-work “benefit tourists”, a new cost that could wreck Coalition plans for welfare reform.

The commission’s threat, on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, has raised the political temperature on Europe still further.

In an outspoken attack today, Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, says the commission’s move is part of a “wider movement” by the “unelected and unaccountable” European authorities to extend their power over the UK.

“This kind of land grab from the EU has the potential to cause mayhem to nation states, and we will fight it,” he writes in The Daily Telegraph.

The commission is objecting to Britain’s rules on welfare, claiming they discriminate unfairly against foreigners. To claim benefits in Britain, EU nationals must pass a “right to reside” test. The commission says the test is too tough, and wants Britain to apply more generous EU-wide rules.

The commission said it had given Britain two months to bring its rules into line with the weaker EU standard. “Otherwise, the commission may decide to refer the UK to the EU’s Court of Justice.”

The intervention has infuriated ministers, in particular because social security has long been seen as a national policy area and not one in which the EU is allowed to interfere.

It will also inflame the Coalition’s internal debate over Europe. Tory MPs, who will gather in Manchester this weekend for their annual conference, are pushing David Cameron to drive a much harder bargain with Brussels. Liberal Democrat ministers have said they will resist any move to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership. » | Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Thursday, September 29, 2011

Migrants Are Having Big Families to Claim Benefits, Says Asian Baroness

MAIL ONLINE: ‘Nobody likes to accept that, nobody likes to talk about it because it is supposed to be very politically incorrect’

Some Asian families in Britain are having too many children in order to claim extra welfare payments, Britain’s first female Asian peer claimed last night.

Baroness Flather accused the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities of failing to adopt the values of British society and said they should have their benefits slashed.

Lady Flather, a former Tory who now sits as a crossbencher, said this abuse of the welfare system has been brushed under the carpet out of political correctness.

She spoke out in the House of Lords during the second reading of the Welfare Reform Bill.

Lady Flather, a former barrister who was born in the Pakistani city of Lahore when it was part of India, praised the Indian community in the UK for having taken on ‘the pattern’ of families in their adopted country, by limiting the size of their families.

But she took aim at the Pakistani community, saying uneducated immigrants are still following the traditions of their homeland by having more children because they end up getting a ‘bigger house’. » | Tim Shipman | Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Why Does Britain Have an Islamist Problem While America Doesn't? Answer: The Welfare State
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – ED WEST: London was the global headquarters of Islamic terrorism in the years before and after 9/11. This fact wasn’t exactly a closely guarded secret, but the WikiLeaks Guantánamo Bay files shed interesting new light on the American perspective. (I especially like the detail that the US government suspected the BBC of being a “possible propaganda media network” for al-Qaeda after a BBC phone number was found on a terrorist. What do they mean “possible”? Have they not listened to Radio 4?)

London became the world terrorist hub partly because the country had a long tradition of shielding dissenters of all stripes; because it had a very unintrusive state compared to its European neighbours (no ID cards); and because of Britain’s historic links with many Arab countries. But there was another reason, and this is central to the reason why Europe has an Islamist problem and the United States doesn’t – the welfare state. Welfare is intimately linked to the failure of western European countries to integrate their Muslim populations, and explains why Britain has such a problem with Islamism.

Look at the two figures named by US intelligence as responsible for recruiting dozens of terrorists, Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza. Qatada, a Jordanian preacher and advisor to shoe bomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the 9/11 plotter, was expelled from Kuwait for supporting the Iraqi invasion, then claimed asylum in Britain on the grounds of religious persecution. We granted it, naturally. Come in! Read on and comment » | Ed West | Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Cutting Off Jobless Benefits for Millions
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Congressional conservatives have cut off extended jobless benefits unless Bush-era tax cuts remain in place for people earning more than $200,000 a year. Video courtesy of Fox News.

Iain Duncan Smith: It's a Sin that People Fail to Take Up Work
THE GUARDIAN: Work and pensions secretary prepares to introduce the most severe welfare sanctions ever imposed by a British government

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. Photograph: The Guardian
Ian Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said today it was a "sin" that people failed to take up available jobs as he prepared to announce a tougher-than-expected squeeze on the unemployed.

This will see the jobless face the threat of losing all benefits for as long as three years if they refuse community work or the offer of a job, or fail to apply for a post if advised to do so.

In the most severe welfare sanctions ever imposed by a British government, unemployed people will lose benefits for three months if they fail to take up one of the options for the first time, six months if they refuse an offer twice, and three years if they refuse an offer three times.

Downing Street sources said the new "claimant contract" will come into force as soon as legislation is passed, and may not wait for the introduction of a streamlined universal credit system in 2013-14.

Duncan Smith will tell MPs today that he is introducing the biggest shake-up of the welfare system since the Beveridge reforms ushered in the welfare state after the second world war. He will say that a new universal credit system will make 2.5 million of the poorest people better off and reduce the number of workless households by 300,000. Read on and comment >>> Patrick Wintour, Randeep Ramesh and Hélène Mulholland | Thursday, November 11, 2010

Archbishop of Canterbury Warns of Forced Jobs 'Despair'
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Government plans to force the long-term unemployed to do unpaid manual labour could drive vulnerable people into a ''downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair'', the Archbishop of Canterbury warned.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will lead the closing session at Davos. Photo: The Sunday Telegraph
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith will this week unveil plans for four-week programmes of compulsory community work doing jobs like litter-picking or gardening for jobless people deemed to have lost the work ethic.

His Cabinet colleague Danny Alexander today said the Work Activity placements would be used as a ''sanction'' against benefit claimants who fail to take advantage of available support to find employment.

But the proposal came under fire from Labour and the unions, with the TUC warning that it would harm jobless people's prospects of finding paid work and would undercut the employment of existing manual labourers.

Asked about the proposed scheme, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, told BBC WM Radio: ''People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are, I think, driven further into a sort of downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in this way.''

Under Mr Duncan Smith's plans, job advisers will be able to direct jobseekers who they believe would ''benefit from experiencing the habits and routines of working life'' to undertake a 30-hour-a-week work placement.

Postings are likely to be provided by charities or councils and will be designed to offer the jobseeker the opportunity to gain work discipline and skills while benefiting their local community. They will be required to continue seeking permanent work while on a placement.

Anyone refusing to take part or failing to turn up on time could have their £65-a-week Jobseekers Allowance stopped for at least three months. >>> | Sunday, November 07, 2010

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Work-shy will be 'pushed' into working for free by welfare revolution: People who do not try hard enough to find a job will be forced to work for free or lose their benefits, the Government will announce this week. >>> Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, November 06, 2010

Child Benefit: I Should Have Warned You, Admits PM
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron hasapologised for failing to warn voters before the election that his government would cut child benefit for millions of households.

In an attempt to stop the row overshadowing his first party conference speech as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron expressed regret at the surprise announcement of a policy which will penalise stay-at-home mothers. >>> Robert Winnett, Andrew Porter and James Kirkup | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Are Cameron and Osborne Too Rich to Know How the Middle Classes Feel About Child Benefit?
David Cameron and George Osborne too rich to understand? Photo: The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOG – DAVID HUGHES: Out of the smouldering wreckage of the child benefit announcement is emerging a view of the Tory leadership that will, if it takes hold, be immensely damaging. It is that they are so well-heeled that they simply do not have a clue about how most people live their lives. David Cameron and George Osborne have never had to worry about money, ever. It has never impinged on their charmed existences. Read on and comment >>> David Hughes | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.

“We’re now in rescue mode,” said Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister. “But we need to transition to the reform mode very soon. The ‘reform deficit’ is the real problem,” he said, pointing to the need for structural change.

The reaction so far to government efforts to cut spending has been pessimism and anger, with an understanding that the current system is unsustainable.

In Athens, Aris Iordanidis, 25, an economics graduate working in a bookstore, resents paying high taxes to finance Greece’s bloated state sector and its employees. “They sit there for years drinking coffee and chatting on the telephone and then retire at 50 with nice fat pensions,” he said. “As for us, the way things are going we’ll have to work until we’re 70.” >>> Steven Erlanger | Saturday, May 22, 2010

Reporting was contributed by Maïa de la Baume and Scott Sayre from Paris, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.

Radical Muslim Preacher Advises His Followers How to Screw the British Government
DAILY MAIL: A radical Muslim preacher has been filmed talking about fraudulently claiming benefits and giving advice on how to cheat the Government.

Self-proclaimed extremist Abu Waleed was speaking at the London School of Shariah event in preparation for Ramadan, during which he also made jokes about Muslims taking backpacks on to the Underground.

The British-born radical retold fables from the Koran before encouraging his audience to hoodwink the Government.

After a story about a wealthy man, he said: "There was one man, he had a lot of money - just like us, we have a lot of money today from the income support and the incapacity benefit. Radical Muslim preacher caught on film giving advice on how to 'hoodwink' the Government over benefits >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Harems Pay Off for Muslims in Toronto
Islamic leaders: Hundreds in GTA get extra welfare for polygamous unions

TORONTO SUN: Hundreds of GTA Muslim men in polygamous marriages -- some with a harem of wives -- are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.

Mumtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, said wives in polygamous marriages are recognized as spouses under the Ontario Family Law Act, providing they were legally married under Muslim laws abroad.

"Polygamy is a regular part of life for many Muslims," Ali said yesterday. "Ontario recognizes religious marriages for Muslims and others."

He estimates "several hundred" GTA husbands in polygamous marriages are receiving benefits. Under Islamic law, a Muslim man is permitted to have up to four spouses. Harems pay off for Muslims >>> By Tom Godfrey, Sun Media

Hat tip: Robert Spencer

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)