£50 charge for non-EU immigrants introduced
Thursday 19th March 2009, 11:06AM GMT.
Non-EU immigrants moving to the UK will have to pay a £50 charge to help sustain local services.
Communities secretary Hazel Blears announced the plan this morning, and stressed the £70 million raised would go towards police support and translation services.
The charge – which applies to those who come to the UK to work or study – comes on top of pre-existing visa costs.
“Where there are impacts as a result of migrants coming in on the local community, we think it’s fair that the migrants themselves should be asked to pay a contribution towards those impacts to make sure that local people don’t feel that they’re really under strain,” Ms Blears said.
But opponents say the funds would make little difference and exacerbate tensions against immigrants during the recession.
“Rather than tackling the real pressures on local services I fear this announcement is designed to get a headline,” said Caroline Spelman, the Conservative shadow communities secretary.
“For a long time councils have been asking for recognition of the pressures put on local services by uncontrolled immigration, for them this announcement may well be too little too late.”
One of the suggestions thrown up by the plan is a scheme universalising translation services across the public sector. Police and hospital translators, for instance, currently operate separately.
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Oh wow a 50pound fee that is going to put a lot of people off coming to the UK especially when the benefits will outweight the 50 pound fee. Good thinking Hazel Blears.
Report abuse
I migrated to the USA 6yrs ago. To do so cost me quite a considerable amount of money.
When I got here I was entitled to nothing. My fiance at the time had to sign a deceration that I would not become a burdon on the state. Which meant I had to have health insurance, we had to prove we had a house to live in and I wouldn’t claim welfare (social security).
I was entitled to nothing, nor did I expect anything I was a foreigner moving to a foreign country.
Immigrants coming into the UK should be the same. They should have to prove they can stand on their own two feet and not become a liability to the country from the day they walk in.
An increase of 50 UK pounds is a joke, add a 0 to it and that would be more like it.
Report abuse
Non-EU migrants to the UK are not entitled to state benefit – that’s a simple fact.
If they have the correct work permit, they can work, and get a limited entitlement to health services etc. by virtue of their tax & NI contributions, an entitlement which increases over time provided that they stay in work.
The inference that they get state benefit is completely incorrect and an invention of the tabloids.
Report abuse
There should be no none EU migrants into this country at all, period. Come to that – there should be no EU migrants either. The face of our country has been totally changed to the point where our whole culture, traditions, customs and history is being swamped under a deluge of newcomers who have no affinity or understanding with us at all.
The whole face of Britain has been changed by this Labour Government who have totally ignored the wishes of the greater majority of the people.
This £50 touch is an insulting sop put out by a Government which wants us to think that they are doing something positive about immigration which they are wholly responsible for. It will do not the slightest good to anyone or anything. What a shocking admission that it will help towards Policing and interpreter fees – if they cannot speak English, that’s another reason for not allowing them to come here. We must be totally mad.
Report abuse
Peter, As far as I know… EU migrants to the UK are not entitled to state or health care benefits .. and Britons are not entitled to health care etc., in other EU countries.??…I could be wrong on this but that is the experience of my kids who work in (continental) Europe.
Report abuse
Stuart, your the perfect example of narrow mindness! If they cannot speak english they cannot come, I can just picture you now, are you aged between 40 and 60, have you ever left this island in your life?
Come on mate, this is a world where we should travel and enjoy the world freely, this country is not only for us!
Think you’ve been born 50 years to late!
Report abuse
Will, I look at your comment with utter contempt, “this country is not only for us”. I won’t even give that comment the reply that it deserves. The editor wouldn’t print it.
Well now, “have I ever left this Island in my life”. Where do you wish me to start. You have picked the wrong one with that remark which sums up the rest of your comment and your basis for it. I merely served 20 years in the Colonial Service/Overseas Civil Service most of which was served in Africa and the Middle East with one tour in the Far East. Can I ask what, by your reasoning should that have taught me with regard to our borders being thrown wide open and any Tom, Dick or Harry being allowed to come here.
Oh!, by the way I have also been to most warm European countries around the Med, a couple of Scandinavian ones plus Canada, America, Bermuda and Cuba.
A small point but when I worked in Foreign countries I was expected to learn the language, indeed on my first overseas posting, I was not “established” as a “permanent” employee until I had passed oral and written exams in the language.
Think up another excuse Will to denigrate those who differ with your grotesque views. You are obviously one of the 12% who would be content for the rest of the world to come and live here – you are in a minority whether you accept it or not. I don’t mind being called “narrow minded”. Anything else I can help you on. Perhaps you would tell me what you do for a living – no don’t, I can guess.
Report abuse
I agree with Y Mab. £50 fine is more of invitation rather than off putting, how can you take money off people who often have nothing other than an invitation to complete benefit forms.
Report abuse
Sorry Stuart, Have to agree with Will on this one, seems that you are somewhat out dated with your views, and which pole was this that showed that 82% of the population are against our borders being open? was it the pole that generally only people with a chip on their shoulders voted ? because if it was a national pole I certainly dont remember it.
You seem like a person who wants the country to stay as it was 50 years ago, well to my mind that is selfish, we are all different now and we need to keep up with the world, not dwell on what we had, its gone, not because we lost iy but because everyone kept up with us.
Report abuse
Sorry Glyn, yes my mistake, it should have been 18%. What about the other stats that say vehicles on our roads have increased by a third over the past decade, 3 million more homes are to be built over the next twenty years, 7 more cities the size of Liverpool to be required within the foreseeable future, the population of our country rising by over 10 million by x number of years (was it fifteen)?.
One of the other places I have been is Hong Kong, a wretched, jam packed, seething hotch potch of humanity that is struggling almost to breathe in an environment something akin to a time of sardines.
That’s what you would have our country like, when you and the likes of you, grow up and recognise that there are many amongst us that value a quality of life that is different to the current mess that we are in and can put forward a convincing argument to justify overcrowding our little island to the point where the only thing we can see is tarmac and concrete and roads are merely a nose to tail mass of cars all heading like a mass of lemmings to ecological and environmental disaster, then some (not I) will possibly listen to you if they are stupid enough.
And it not only a question of overcrowding our country, it is also a question of the oft quoted wonderful principle of “multi culturism”, when I see and hear Trevor Phillips raising the problems of this I know that the politicians are wrong and we are heading for problems.
And Glyn, you say, “WE NEED TO KEEP UP WITH THE WORLD”. What world is that?, you name me one country in the United Nations that throws down it’s border controls, scraps any form of regulated immigration (and don’t give me the “points sytem”), turns illegal immigrants loose to make their own way to Police Stations, fails to deport serious criminals, increases an already crowded country by something approaching a million in two years and makes our capital city a place where shortly a white British face will be equalled by those of other nationalities, want me to go on. Just name one. I can, “Great” Britain.
Why should this country worry when there are people with views like yours in our midst.
Report abuse
they should never be allowed in the first place, they should not be allowed from the EU too, we dont want foreigners here, this is an admission by the government thatimmigrants drain our pulbic services, we need out of the EU, only the conservatives will protectour borders and keep them out
Report abuse
good it should be put on their council tax, make it £500 and we might start getting some where
Report abuse
What a joke!
I am married to an American and we live in the UK. He had to supply 10 years worth of tax and business records and we had to go for Embassy interviews with evidence that our relationship was genuine– this entailed a flight from SF to LA and back. He had to prove that he was self-sufficient, and would be able to support me/my family, as he would NOT be able to claim benefits in the UK. All this just to get approval for marriage! I joked that he should simply have applied for asylum from George Bush..it would have been a cinch!
Incidentally, we are going back to the USA. Getting a relative’s Visa through the official channels, is a very long, drawn-out process, involving handing over several hundred pounds to the US government, expensive medical interviews with medical tests for HIV/STDs/TB, Embassy visits, checks and cross-checks etc etc.. Britain is now a free-for-all, with a welfare state developed for British taxpayers that is now supporting a tidal-wave of immigrants and asylum-seekers and I despair at what Britain is becoming.
Report abuse
good policy, but %50 is not enough, double it
Report abuse
Stuart,
There is not a nation on earth that has invaded, occupied and forced their values, language, culture and customs on other peoples more than the English.English is the world language because of this. The English are suffering today because of their own remarkable success in subduing other nations and destroying local identity customs and ways of life..that have been lost forever.
How sad is this… I talk to local first nations people on an almost daily basis who continue to resent what the ‘whiteman’ has done to them.
Forcing them to go to schools where they were mistreated and punished simply for speaking their own mother tongue….taken away from their parents, beaten and molested by whitemen who had no understanding or respect for native customs and values.
Report abuse
Stuart, I dont want to directly insult you here but it is people with aggressive views as you have which makes the world full of hatred and cause many problem, can you not turn your frustration to something else such as the environment? you may very well of upset certain people who have read these posts. About time you changed your views think.
Report abuse
50 quid to live in the UK is a bargain, their income potential goes up by about 10 grand a year reltive to say poland on day one, how is £50 going to help??? Put them on an emergency tax code for the first 5 years, see if they really want to stay, ive been paying for years, its only fair they pay more before they get the same levels of support and perks
Report abuse
its too late for labour to get tough on immigration now, they have had 11 years, being soft on immigrantion now the poles are going home becaue of the recession, they will try to use this to show their policy is working, rubbish people move with the economy thats the truth, government policy does nothing
Report abuse
Tony, I am not prepared to but we could have had an interesting debate on “Colonialism”. So, your “first nations” people would rather the “whiteman” had not gone to Canada and brought them into contact with civilization. They would prefer to have still been living in a constant state of inter tribal war, living in teepees and suffering from all the privations of a truly primitive people.
I don’t intend to further this debate with you, if Britain was the second largest country in the world and as underpopulated as Canada, I would welcome all comers. We are not, we are a cramped tiny Island, bursting at the seems and having in our midst people like the Glyn’s of this world who see seems to worry about the the environment when in fact if things go on as he wishes, he will have no environment to worry over.
As for hatred and problems Glyn, I suggest that you get out more or take your rosy tinted specs off – they are already with us – whether you accept that or not. It is those hatreds and problems that will be eased or diminished by stopping mass, uncontrolled immigration.
You can “insult” me if you wish. That response appears to be the limit of your knowledge and experience of these matters.
As for “upsetting people”, now, who would they be and why should that concern me if they should not be here., ie illegals, covicted criminals, economic migrants etc etc etc etc.
Your case is to juvenile for me Glyn, sorry.
Report abuse
Stuart, I’ll probably make this the last post because when someone has extreme views such as your there seem little point in debating with them, I just feel satisfied with myself that I am happy enough in life and dont feel the need to vent such anger and annoyance as you seem to, however your last post alerted me to a degree as it was the first post from you that you mentioned the illegals, criminals and migrant workers all in one sentence. I’m afraid the fact that you have grouped these together only proves to show your character.
I’m relieved that this was only a ‘non face to face’ debate.
Report abuse
Will, Well summed up!
Report abuse
The satisfaction that I have is that there are more like myself than there are like you or Will, Glyn and it is that that stops me taking a leaf out of your book and becoming so intemperate. The silly comments without substance shows your juvenile and pathetic argument. Your assumption that I am angry and annoyed over this issue, is just that, an “assumption”. I am extremely angry over Labour having ruined our country though. Is it that, that makes you so passionate in supporting unrestricted immigration into this country or is it because you are a left wing, bleeding heart Liberal.
I was accused of not having been outside the UK in one post – and presumably, not having seen how the other half live. Can I suggest that both you and Will take a long trip overseas sometime and do exactly that. Continue to be “happy and satisfied” until events brought about by New Labour catch up with you and rock your little rose tinted world is to the core.
Report abuse
Stuart,
I think that you ought to chill out, not very healthy this bitterness.
Report abuse
I suggest that you look at who is using the silly comments, unless you agree with them of course which appears to be the case. “Bitterness” is not the word I would choose, more appropriate would be “ashamed” – of those like the Wills and Glyns of this country who see it as some sort of Shangri La. I certainly don’t.
Report abuse