Shoppers in Spalding are welcoming a Government clampdown on jobless EU benefits “tourists” to stop them milking Britain’s welfare system.
Home secretary Theresa May and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith say jobless migrants will be denied housing benefits from April – and will only be able to claim jobseeker’s cash for six months if they have a “genuine” chance of work.
A three-month ban on claims for out of work benefits is already in force.
Polish-born Diana Gajek (38), who lives in Spalding, welcomed the step, saying: “You have to put something into the pot before you take from the pot.”
Diana started her working life here in the fields in 2003 and now owns the Polish Education Centre.
Paddy Dunham, from Spalding, said: “I think it’s a good idea. They (the Government) never give me anything, I have never got anything out of them.”
Peter Timson (60), from Spalding, said: “If migrants are going to come to this country and not have a job to come to, why are they coming here?”
Peter Wood (77), from Holbeach, says the Government should tighten the rules.
He said: “They come over here because their benefits are not as good as ours. People should not come to this country if they haven’t got a job to come to.”
Peter Goodacre, from Moulton Chapel, said: “Most of the migrants coming over are quite happy to work – it’s not a case of coming over to try and grab what they can benefits wise.”
New mum Charlotte Morgan (22), from Spalding, says people must work to pay money into the system before taking it out.
She said: “You have to put something into the pot first otherwise it’s just not fair really – I wouldn’t mind if they had been living here five or six years.”