Britain to curb EU migrants benefit to reduce immigration

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that immigrants from the EU need to work in Britain for four years so they could claim benefits in the country.

Cameron made the speech after the number of net migration till June this year reached 260,000, significantly increased 78,000 from the previous year, Xinhua reported.

Thus, Cameron's target of reducing the number below 100,000 by the general election next year becomes extremely hard to be realised, according to the current trend report.

In the speech in the West Midlands Friday, the prime minister said over the last 10 years, immigration to Britain has soared, while the number of Britons going to work abroad has remained roughly the same.

He said the net immigration showed the pressure of immigration has gone up significantly.

He noted that so many people come to Britain due to tax credits, welfare payments and some other financial incentives, and there are more than 400,000 EU migrants take advantage of them.

"I will insist that in the future those who want to claim tax credits and child benefit must live here and contribute to our country for a minimum of four years," Cameron said.

"If their child is living abroad, then there should be no child benefit or child tax credit at all no matter how long they have worked in Britain and no matter how much tax they have paid," he said.

"And we will introduce a new residency requirement for social housing, meaning that you can't even be considered for a council house unless you have been here for at least four years," he added.

He said he had confidence to reduce significantly EU migration to Britain.

--Indo-asian News Service

bb/