Number of Romanians and Bulgarians registered to work and claim benefits soars

BRITAIN’S “open door” immigration policy has seen seven times as many migrants from Europe’s poorest countries register for work here, new figures show.

Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe blamed the figures on lax migration policiesGETTY

Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe blamed the figures on lax migration policies

Official statistics show 187,370 Romanians and Bulgarians were given National Insurance numbers in 2014, up from 27,700 the previous year. 

It represents a 576 per cent increase in the numbers registered to work or receive state benefits since immigration rules were relaxed.

Data from the Department for Work and Pensions shows Romanians and Bulgarians now make up 25 per cent of all new NI numbers allocated to foreigners.

But the rising tide of eastern Europeans registering for work could make it harder for British people to find jobs, it was claimed last night.

Critics said Britain was full-up and fed-up - and had to act to stop the “inexorable rise in east European economic immigration”.

Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe said: “These figures are the result of the politically driven migration policies of the Labour and Conservative parties who are determined follow a European integrationist agenda at all costs. 

“The outcome is a UK labour market which is not fair to British workers who experience wage compression caused by competition from workers from the poorest east European countries.”

These figures are the result of the politically driven migration policies of the Labour and Conservative parties who are determined follow a European integrationist agenda at all costs

Steven Woolfe

Experts said the figures suggested many had been here for months, or even years, working illegally in Britain’s burgeoning black economy. 

It is thought two million people work in jobs that pay “cash-in-hand”, like construction, catering and cleaning, which enable them to support themselves while not paying taxes.

By law anyone wanting to work or claim benefits and tax credits must have a NI number. 

The astonishing rise in the number of people flocking here from eastern Europe follows the axing of restrictions on the kids of work Romanians and Bulgarians can do in the UK.

Rules introduced when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 stated that migrants could only work in the UK in seasonal jobs such as fruit picking, or if they were self-employed. 

But these restrictions ended on January 1 last year when they were then given the same rights to work in the UK as British citizens. 

According to council chiefs unrestricted migration is having a devastating effect on communities. 

Desperate migrant families are paying as little as £50-a-week to sleep on grubby mattresses in freezing outbuildings.

Harrow, in north west London, is already home to 5,000 Romanians but experts believe there is an underground population of 1,000 living in more than 300 illegal “bed-in-sheds”.

As the cost of renting soars to record levels, an increasing number of those arriving here for the first time are forced to set up home in cramped wooden huts and outbuildings, paying rates that go undeclared to the council or taxman.

Latest figures show record numbers of immigrants pushed annual net migration to nearly 300,000.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed 624,000 people moved to the UK in the 12 months to the end of September <<2014>> - the highest number on record - while around 327,000 people left the country.

The net inflow of 298,000 is 54,000 more than when the Coalition took office in 2010 and Prime Minister David Cameron promised to slash net migration to below 100,000. 

And it is only 22,000 short of the highest net migration figure of 320,000, recorded under Labour in 2005.

Carlos Vargas-Silva, of The Migration Observatory, said: “These figures give the impression that many of these people were here already doing something but we don’t know what that something was. There is a possibility that many of these people were in that informal economy without the proper permits to work.” 

The Department for Work and Pensions said: “The British public are rightly concerned that people come to this country for the right reasons. Our immigration policy is designed to benefit UK nationals first, while still attracting skilled migrants where needed by British business.

“In the past, the majority of growth in employment was taken up by foreign nationals - since 2010, two thirds of it has been accounted for by UK nationals.

“We have introduced tough new rules to protect the benefits system, which we are strengthening under Universal Credit so no EU migrants will be able to claim benefits in the UK without having worked here first.”

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