A question about : The payment of child benefit to people with children living abroad is not a loophole!
Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said Labour would limit in-work benefits and end the absurdity of child benefits going to migrants with kids living abroad. Telegraph, 18 Nov 2014.
That sounds rather stupid to me. Her half baked idea could be rather costly. In the 1990s the British government agreed to harmonize EU rules for child benefit, leading to child benefit being run through PAYE. Before that, child benefit was mostly paid where the children lived, but the UK agreed to changing the it to where the claimant works! This puts many workers at a disadvantage, as child benefit in the UK is lower than in France, NL, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, …, though it is higher than in most of the new accession countries.
If Labour would manage to take child benefit away from migrant workers with children in eg Romania, some of them might be enticed to bring their children to the UK, where they would have to attend British schools and GP practises, at a cost to us. Even a Labour shadow work and pensions secretary should see that such a far reaching change could potentially be costly for the British taxpayer.
Best answers:
- @DaveTheMus -Most citizens life is divided in three stages:
Stage 1.- People cost the state during birth, upbringing and education.
Stage 2.- Working life where people contribute through taxes, NI etc.
Stage 3.- Old people draw pension, care etc..
Many immigrants stay only for their working life (some stay on as OAPs), some even leave their "Stage 1" offspring behind.
Why any politician, like the shadow work and pensions secretary Ms Rachel Reeves, would want to financially encourage those immigrants to bring their children is beyond me.
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