This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
YOUNG British adults could be banned from receiving welfare payments as part of a sabre-rattling Tory bid to stop migrants from claiming, it was revealed yesterday.
Everyone under the age of 22 would be denied housing benefit and tax credits, even if they are in low-wage employment and have families to support.
The proposed ban is part of a scheme seeking to block new EU migrants from accessing benefits for at least four years.
Because refusing to aid migrants breaches EU discrimination law, Tories want to extend the mean-spirited measure to British citizens.
Officials confirmed that the 28-country bloc would not agree to a treaty change allowing sole restrictions on migrants ahead of Britain’s EU membership referendum planned for 2017, a BBC report said.
Labour and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have warned the government that most British people would find it unacceptable to limit benefits for under-22s.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Young working families should not have their support sacrificed by David Cameron to please his hardline backbenchers.
“Excluding migrants altogether would not be possible without also penalising care leavers, disabled people, young parents and pregnant women.
“If he carries on like this, Cameron will find it harder to build the public support needed to remain in the EU.”
Shadow work and pensions minister Stephen Timms said the government could adopt Labour’s manifesto pledge to restrict migrants’ access to benefits for two years instead.
Benefits being restricted to British 18 and 19-year-olds and halving the time restriction for migrants would affect fewer claimants if the Tories are not willing to drop the bans altogether, Mr Timms suggested.
However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he claimed: “Our view has always been that there is a good case for restricting benefits to new migrants from elsewhere in the EU.”
A government spokesperson said: “We’ve already taken action to protect the benefits system and ensure that EU migrants come to this country for the right reasons.”
