Exclusion of migrant workers from welfare benefits
9.9.2016
Question for written answer E-006827-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Konstantinos Papadakis (NI)
Under the EU-UK agreement prior to the referendum on British membership of the EU and the ‘safeguard mechanism’, a decision was taken to limit access by migrants from Member States newly arrived in the United Kingdom ‘to in-work benefits for up to four years’, with the cutting of family and other benefits, unemployment benefit and basic support measures for new migrants, in the interests of capital.
Referring to the anti-labour agreement in question, Commissioner Thyssen has said that she will submit ‘a proposal for a revision of the current rules on social security coordination in: unemployment benefits, long-term care benefits, family benefits, and access to welfare benefits for economically inactive persons’, in the name of ‘labour mobility’ in the EU.
With the Commission’s agreement, the Syriza-ANEL government is converting what was left of unemployment benefits into direct financial allocations to employers, rolling out flexible working and giving rise to job losses and further wage cuts.
What changes to unemployment benefit, family benefits and welfare benefits is the Commission putting forward?
What is its position on the fact that cutting or abolishing these benefits is resulting in migrants — and workers in general — roaming from country to country in order to survive without labour, social welfare or insurance rights, to the benefit of the profits of business groups?