Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-23.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is his Department’s policy to provide additional funding to local authorities for providing public services for nationals of other EU member states who remain in the UK for less than one year; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin

‘Additional funding’ has been interpreted to mean welfare expenditure. There is no policy of additional welfare expenditure for nationals of other EU member states who remain in the UK for less than one year.

If the UK votes to remain in the EU, the Prime Minister’s February deal will take effect. Included in the deal is the ‘Emergency Brake’, a mechanism to exclude recently-arrived EEA workers from access to full UK in-work benefits for 4 years. Initially the Brake will involve complete exclusion for in work benefits. The deal also confirmed that in future the UK will not have to pay any means-tested unemployment benefits to EU nationals who come to the UK as job seekers.