Who makes our rules, the UK or Europe?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....s-soon-arrive-UK.html

Is the EU right in demanding that we treat all EU citizens equally when it comes to dishing out our benefits?

If the EU think it is only fair, then it would be only fair for equivalent benefits to be made available in all EU countries, at the cost to each individual country of course.

[Sonyme]

Your thinking is common sense, which of course is alien to EU bureaucrats.

[starone]

Heavens above!!! Whatever next? Will it never cease? This continuous grinding down of our sovereign rights? It's about time we stood up and did something about it - not let them hammer us into the ground.
P.S Don't ask me what - I'm too old now, but I'll support with my encouragement.

[Bobbisox]

Are we the only country that has the benefit system?
just curious
AOG, if we are, I 100% agree with you :-)

[starone]

I think I read somewhere that France doesn't do it - they just stick them in a camp somewhere and tell them to get on with it. I don't think they get the same considerations as they do here.

[Ankou]

"it would be only fair for equivalent benefits to be made available in all EU countries"

thats the rules of the club, each member has to abide by the same rules.

[carolegif]

We need to change the benefits system like they do in Europe. Job Seekers' Allowance equivalent in Germany - you are offered three jobs, if you don't take any of them, then your benefits stop. In Spain, you have to work for 6 months to get benefit for the next 6 months (to do with the tourist season), and I think they changed that to 9 months work a few years ago.
No-one else in Europe lets people get unlimited benefits for nothing.

[Bobbisox]

thank you Carole....

[anotheoldgit]

Before UK nationals travel in Europe one needs a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and I believe that if one needs medical care while in Europe, one can get it free of charge but the cost is passed on to our NHS.

Below is a section from what is covered by the EHIC.

# It includes routine maternity care (not only because of illness or accident), as long as you're not going abroad to give birth. However, where the birth happens unexpectedly, the card will cover the cost of all medical treatment for mother and baby that is linked to the birth. #

"as long as you're not going abroad to give birth"????????????

Now there is the difference, do not foreign expectant mothers come to the UK to have their child free on the NHS?

[Ankou]

"do not foreign expectant mothers come to the UK to have their child free on the NHS?"

possibly, who knows. the ons report on the gap in population numbers suggested this could be one of a whole host of reasons for the innacurate statistics obtained. are you taking sensationalist headline as fact again?

[Brenden]

Here is one case that comes to mind. Media URL: http://naijan.com/bimbo-ayelabola-nigerian-mother-of-quintuplets-battles-to-stay-permanently-in-the-uk/
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[Ankou]

gosh, one out of the 650,000 babies born in the uk every year.

its an outrage.

[boxtops]

I heard that it's the same in France - twelve months on the dole then they take it off you. No idea what happens to you after that, though, if there are no jobs.

[Brenden]

Sorry having trouble with link.

[Brenden]

Hope this works. Media URL: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3673011/Nigerian-mum-Bimbo-Ayelabola-flew-into-Britain-and-had-quins-on-the-NHS.html
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[emmie]

Ankou, i am aware than Brendens link didn't work, but health tourism is rife in Britain, so that's not an isolated case. If Britain scrapped all benefits, i know it's unthinkable, would we have had so many people come here, believing it's the land of milk and honey, and not just people from EU countries. Like should be met with like, if i wanted to settle in Spain, and can't get a job there, why shouldn't i receive the same benefits as i would here in Britain. I suspect that our benefits system far outstrips any other in the western World.

[Ankou]

you can if you use the correct forms and contribute to the system.

http://www.hmrc.gov.u...e_certificate_e.shtml

[boxtops]

EHIC doesn't cover full medical care, which is why you still need travel insurance