Comments on immigrant benefits

MSM, for example, The Sun, The Telegraph, The Times, The Express cite dodgy statistics from the 'Centre for Migration Control'.
For the link to this, have a look at Doodledog's post upthread.
Yes, lived experience is important, but so is true reporting on MSM.

Taxis to hospitals for asylum seekers are being phased out. Fact.

Primrose53

Rewarding people who come here illegally by allowing them to work is a stupid idea. That will just encourage even more people to come here!

They would likely be in low paid work so would get Universal Credit to top up their wages. What good is that? House rental prices are currently very high so how are they going to afford to rent anywhere without even more benefits?

Well it wouldn't be 'stupid' if minimum wages were raised so they didn't need benefits (a part of my post you ignored). They would also contribute by doing whatever the work involved, such as manufacturing things or providing a service, as well as via tax. That would make immigrants more useful than a lot of British people who do none of those things but still expect to be given money and services from the state.

As for coming here illegally, when people have applied for asylum they are not here illegally, and before that their application they would not be able to work or apply for any benefits. Asylum would be refused if people's reason for application were simply to work - asylum seekers are fleeing human rights abuses or war zones, not so they can work in a low-paid job in an alien environment.

Lathryus and Doodledog make very good points, I commented earlier about the local charity’s support programme identifying service users as mainly people with professional backgrounds. I accept the points about transferable qualifications and difficulty proving them. I was simply suggesting not all asylum seekers are young single men who pose threats.
The added pressure on services as a result of ever increasing numbers of refugees is a problem

Rewarding people who come here illegally by allowing them to work is a stupid idea. That will just encourage even more people to come here!

They would likely be in low paid work so would get Universal Credit to top up their wages. What good is that? House rental prices are currently very high so how are they going to afford to rent anywhere without even more benefits?

Absolutely nothing there that I disagree with. The problems need to be dealt with, not ignored or dismissed as untrue.

Ah if only we were in charge 😬😬😬

I think that what you say is true, Lathyrus, and try to 'check my privilege' when I comment on things like this, as I am aware that I don't have an asylum hostel on my street, I am not waiting to be housed and my children aren't having their education held back because English is a minority language in their school.

I feel the same when people comment about other things - how more children should have apprenticeships (just not theirs, who should of course go to university), how giving WFA to people on pension credit is making sure that it goes to those who 'need' it, when they aren't paying rent and struggling on a tiny pension that takes their income a few pounds over the mans-test limit, or how dreadful it is that people look for ways to ensure they can leave something to their children if they need care, when the complainers have enough to pay for care and still leave a lot behind. Many policies that rely on means-tests are deeply unfair, as is those who 'have' deciding on what others 'need'. I complain about that a lot on here.

People do have a right to feel aggrieved about all of those things (and more), but the answer is, IMO, to deal with the reasons why the inequalities exist, rather than blaming the people who need assistance.

Raise minimum wage so that people in full-time work don't have to rely on benefit top ups. Make pension contributions compulsory, and if people don't pay in they shouldn't get one unless they have been unable to (as opposed to not wanting to) work. Give everyone an education fund that they can draw on at any time of their life, so that if someone wants to leave school early, work for years then retire and study poetry or floristry that is fine, as is getting a degree at 22 and a professional qualification at 45. Have a ring-fenced tax for social care, so that anyone who has paid it gets care without charge. That sort of thing.

What we do about people who slip through the net is for us (As a country) to decide, but the expectation should be that if you don't contribute you don't benefit from the fruits of others' labours. If people have to think carefully about what sort of society they want to be part of, they might feel less punitive when it comes to other groups. We could go the way of the US (and much of the developing world) where if you don't work you starve, and if you are ill the treatment stops when your money runs out. Or we could opt for a more humane system that expects all citizens to contribute when they can so that they are 'covered' when they cannot, such as we supposedly have now. The policing of that system needs to be tweaked, to ensure that it is properly reciprocal, and a good place to start would be to allow asylum seekers to work and pay tax, which would then allow them to pay rent and so on, so they don't need to be given priority over others. People may then be less resentful of them.

Meanwhile, however, there is nothing unreasonable about being aware that anti-immigrant propaganda is pernicious, that many of the figures we are given are false, that there are reasons why asylum seekers hang about their home towns (they are not allowed to work and have no money for recreational pursuits) and that if they are vulnerable they have housing needs in the same way that vulnerable British people do.

Allira

^The thing is, people can quote statistics and figures and make statements like “the vast number were professionals” or whatever. And that may all be true.^

We cannot know that the vast number were professionals as many arrive without passport or papers.

I just didn’t want to be as dismissive of somebody’s reported experience as some posters are of others real experiences.

At least I didn’t say Oh you just read that somewhere and believed it😬

What type of professionals?
And what difference does that make even if they have the correct papers?

If a lawyer has qualified in a different country, they cannot practise law here without re-qualifying. I know this from a refugee who was a lawyer in her home country and is now a refugee here. It's fairly obvious anyway.
Nor can doctors without undergoing further training and registration.

The thing is, people can quote statistics and figures and make statements like “the vast number were professionals” or whatever. And that may all be true.

We cannot know that the vast number were professionals as many arrive without passport or papers.

Lathyrus3

The thing is, people can quote statistics and figures and make statements like “the vast number were professionals” or whatever. And that may all be true.

But what most people will go by is their own personal experience and the way it affects their lives.

If what you experience for yourself is a newly arrived family being housed when you have been told there is no housing for your family that is going to make you resentful.

If you get up every morning and work long hours to support your family and the newly arrived family is given everything they need you are going to think how is that fair?

If you spend a lot of your pension getting to hospital appointments when you see the taxi arrive for the people down the street it’s going to make you cross.

It’s no use well meaning people in comfortable circumstances telling these people it isn’t really like that. The trite dismissal of their real experiences just adds to the belief that people who feel morally superior but who are actually too affluent to be affected won’t listen and don’t understand.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Maremia

But it's not just 'comfortable' people telling them things, they are being lied to by false statistics openly published in MSM.

I genuinely don’t know what you mean about MSN.

And the taxis are still runnng. Don’t dismiss real experience.

But it's not just 'comfortable' people telling them things, they are being lied to by false statistics openly published in MSM.

I think the 'taxi' issue is being phased out.

The thing is, people can quote statistics and figures and make statements like “the vast number were professionals” or whatever. And that may all be true.

But what most people will go by is their own personal experience and the way it affects their lives.

If what you experience for yourself is a newly arrived family being housed when you have been told there is no housing for your family that is going to make you resentful.

If you get up every morning and work long hours to support your family and the newly arrived family is given everything they need you are going to think how is that fair?

If you spend a lot of your pension getting to hospital appointments when you see the taxi arrive for the people down the street it’s going to make you cross.

It’s no use well meaning people in comfortable circumstances telling these people it isn’t really like that. The trite dismissal of their real experiences just adds to the belief that people who feel morally superior but who are actually too affluent to be affected won’t listen and don’t understand.

Net migration is the difference between people leaving a country and people coming into it.
Those we give visas to and come here through official channels.
A lot we didn’t want, who didn’t add anything to the UK or for other reasons have left but boats are still arriving here every day that the sea is calm enough, sometimes a thousand in a day.
These people were not given visas and have just turned up here from France.We know nothing about them and usually can’t check if they are criminals or anything else as lots ditch any personal info, lie about their name/ age/ occupation/ even country.

barmcake you say ‘it’s a question of numbers and sustainability’ … have you actually seen the latest net migration figures?

“Net migration to the UK fell sharply to 204,000 in the year ending June 2025, a ~70% decrease from 649,000 in June 2024 and an ~80% drop from the 2023 peak. This decline, driven by tighter rules on work/student visas and increased departures, returns levels to pre-pandemic and pre-Brexit averages - Migration Observatory

Key points on UK net migration (YE June 2025):
Rapid Decline: The drop of 720,000 in just two years marks a significant reversal from the 900,000+ peak, according to Migration Observatory research.”

The ONS predicts that net migration is likely to fall to zero in 2026.

Oreo

I agree barmcake
People wanting to come here doesn’t mean they should be allowed to, France said ages ago that the UK was a draw due to the benefits and they were right.

Yes well said 👏👏👏👏👏

I agree barmcake
People wanting to come here doesn’t mean they should be allowed to, France said ages ago that the UK was a draw due to the benefits and they were right.

I have resided in several Muslim countries and frequently heard; 'your Government gives you free houses and money', and the general feeling was that all Westerners were rich.

I don't blame people for coming here. Is it really impossible to come up with a fair and organised system - have seen great ideas posted on GN. A city the size of Nottingham has arrived in the last decade. It's a question of numbers and sustainability. I fear for the next generation.

What I don’t understand is that many people that don’t want people coming to this country are also against giving countries overseas aid to make it easier for people not to leave ( and I know there will just be comments about the countries not using the money properly).

One large, well known and respected charity ran a programme to support refugees. The vast majority of service users were professional people

foxie48

Have you ever thought about those asylum seekers who are escaping being forced to work for Hamas or being conscripted to Syria, or who have worked with British military in Afghanistan or escaped from any other hell hole existence? We no longer have any means for them claiming asylum in this country unless they are actually in the country. Many of them speak English, have English connections because of our past history in their countries. Civilised humane countries accept their responsibility in accepting refugees, we take far fewer than most European countries and IMO we should improve our processing not try to build walls.

It is complicated, isn’t it? On one hand, UK has a moral obligation to accept refugees since it signed up to the UN Refugee Convention in 1950s.

Meanwhile, it struggles to provide housing for its own homeless—those evicted from rentals, now staying with friends, living in vehicles, or temporary accomodation as they wait for permanent homes.

Around 2 million people entered the UK between 2021 and 2024 via the Boriswave, Hong Kong scheme, and small boat arrivals, increasing pressure on the housing crisis as each individual and their family require accommodation.

If new homes are prioritised for asylum seekers, many British citizens may feel unfairly treated in their own country.

To make matter worse, the economy is struggling due to the November budget, and several people in my daughter's circle, including public sector workers, have been made redundant or are at risk of losing their jobs.

A joiner I spoke with recently cannot find work after Christmas—he has sent out 10 quotes but received no responses, when usually most would accept.

My window cleaner who runs his own business is considering emigrating.

My crystal ball tells me, Labour will be defeated in the forthcoming local elections because of the economy and immigration issues.

You are welcome, NS.

More on the "Centre for Migration Control" which isn't a centre at all.

The article that Primrose53 quotes from The Sun - her post Thu 19-Feb-26 21:51:14 - is another piece of fabrication from one man called Robert Bates.

Two years ago, Byline Times published an article about Tufton Street right-wing “think-tanks”.

It explains that the so called Centre for Migration Control (CMC) is just Bates … the former research executive of the now defunct Eurosceptic campaign group Get Britain Out … Research into CMC reveals that it is in fact a rebrand of Future for Leave, the “younger sibling” of Leave Means Leave, the former pro-Brexit pressure group, once again based at 55 Tufton St.

Guess what? It was co-chaired by Richard Tice and Brexit Party MEP John Longworth. Nigel Farage was its vice-chair.

You can read more here:

bylinetimes.com/2024/02/15/another-new-anti-immigration-pressure-group-is-launched-from-tufton-street-and-met-with-reams-of-media-coverage/

Another New Anti-Immigration Pressure Group is Launched from Tufton Street and Met with Reams of Media Coverage
The mysterious case of a tiny new ‘think tank’ launching – and being immediately granted gullible coverage from right-wing papers

In other words, Bates fabricates articles for Reform and feeds them to the the Sun, Mail, Express and Telegraph and GB News who print and broadcast them because it suits their agenda and that of their readers and viewers.

Thanks Graphite.