More Than One Million Foreigners Claiming Benefits

[Khandro]

Households with at least one foreign national claimant received more than £7.5 billion in universal credit in 2023, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.

Foreign nationals become eligible for universal credit and other benefits on the same terms as British citizens once they are granted indefinite leave to remain and have settled or refugee status.  Telegraph.

How long can this go on?

[Khandro]

Corbyloon (ever seeker of controversy); why on earth bring in the Irish whose citizen numbers in the UK are tiny compared to the million in the OP ?  

You know very well that those stats from the DWP refer to scroungers from elsewhere.  

[fripfrip]

The Irish have built us more roads than the Romans,leave them alone.

[THECORBYLOON]

Is every single one of those in a household with at least one foreigner and claiming Universal Credit, a scrounger?

Has every single one of them never worked, never paid any taxes, never bought anything, never paid any VAT?

[New Judge]

"...never bought anything, never paid any VAT?"

The VAT (and Excise Duy) which people who live on benefits pay is not a gain to the Exchequer. It is simply the recovery of a small amount of the money paid to them. 

[THECORBYLOON]

From the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR),

"In 2024-25, we expect VAT to raise £171.2 billion (this measure of VAT excludes refunds of VAT made to certain public sector organisations). That would represent 14.9 per cent of all receipts and is equivalent to £6,000 per household and 6.1 per cent of national income."

https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/vat/

Sounds like a gain to the Exchequer to me.

[New Judge]

"Sounds like a gain to the Exchequer to me."

It doesn't matter how much VAT raises in total or what the average collected from each household is.

Somebody living entirely on benefits receives all their spending money from the Exchequer. Any money they pay in VAT or any other indirect tax or excise duty is simply the recovery of a small part of the Exchequer's initial outlay. 

The Exchequer (i.e. the taxpayer) suffers a net loss to that individual.