Britannia Radio

A selection of recent media reports

Child Benefit: £1m A Week For Children Abroad
UK taxpayers are forking out £1m a week in child benefit to parents whose children live overseas, research suggest
Sky News (04-Feb-2013)

'Absurd' benefits payments slammed
Tens of thousands of children who live abroad but receive benefits claimed by immigrant families in Britain are costing Bri
Liverpool Daily Post.co.uk (04-Feb-2013)

Migrants handed £1m a week for children back home as thousands of British families are stripped of THEIR child ben..
Britain is giving EU immigrants £1million a
Mail Online (04-Feb-2013)

Bulgarians 'will not flock to UK'
Bulgarian workers will not flock to the UK when an immigration ban is relaxed next year, the Bulgarian foreign minister said yester
Scotsman.com (04-Feb-2013)

Romanians got around worker limits to build Olympic Village, ambassador boasts
Romanian workers have bypassed immigration controls by claiming to be self-emplo
Telegraph.co.uk (03-Feb-2013)

Nelson couple fight UK Borders Agency for children's visas
a NELSON couple are fighting the UK Borders Agency in a bid to bring their two children to this country fro
Pendle Today (03-Feb-2013)

IF WE DON\u0092T HAVE A COMMON LANGUAGE WE WILL ALL SUFFER
IT'S easy to get lost in the forest of immigration statistics that seem to emerge almost weekly.
Express.co.uk (01-Feb-2013)

Sharia divorces could be allowed after legal ruling
Divorces settled by religious courts including Sharia are a step closer to being allowed under British law aft
Telegraph.co.uk (01-Feb-2013)

Illegal immigrant jailed for part in cannabis farm in Boston
This is Lincolnshire -- AN ILLEGAL immigrant arrested after police raided a cannabis farm in Bo
London: The News (01-Feb-2013)

Evening Standard comment: Plan ahead for a new wave of immigrants
The arrival from next January of Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants, freed from temporary immi
London Evening Standard (31-Jan-2013)

Press Releases

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Benefits for Overseas Children Cost UK Taxpayer £1 million per week
4 February, 2013

The taxpayer is forking out over £1 million per week in child benefit to the parents whose children who do not even live in the UK, the think tank Migration Watch UK reveals today in a new Briefing Paper.

The revelation comes following the disclosure that child benefit and tax credits are paid in respect of almost 50,000 children who live across the EU.

The majority, almost 30,000, of the 50,000 children who receive child benefit and child tax credits at UK rates live in Poland.

Child benefit in the UK is worth £81.20 per month for the first child and £53.60 for the second and subsequent  children.  This is roughly four times higher than Polish rates.

Only in the UK, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands do the rules allow child benefit to be paid for children who live elsewhere in the EU. The remaining 22 countries require that the child be resident in the territory in order to qualify.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said, ‘It is absurd that child benefit is paid to children who do not even live in the UK. At a time that UK taxpayers are being asked to tighten their belts, the government is paying out over £1 million per week to support children in other countries where costs are, in any case, often much lower. The majority of EU countries have the good sense to ensure that the child in question must be resident in that country in order to qualify and it is about time the UK did the same.’

Note to Editors:

See Parliamentary Question, Mr Keith Vaz, 28 January 2013, Column 619W