Benefit Pensions

Are you aware of the following ?




NOW YOU KNOW WHY PENSIONERS ARE UP IN ARMS

HUNG PARLIAMENT - HANGING'S TOO GOOD FOR THEM






The British Govenment provides the following financial assistance: -

BENEFIT
BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS / REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN

Weekly allowance
£100
£250

Weekly Spouse allowance
£25
£225

Additional weekly hardship allowance
£0;00
£100








TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT
£6,000
£29,900



If I were a refugee, why would I look for work?

Please forward to all your contacts so that we can lobby for an increase in the aged pension.

After all, the average pensioner has paid taxes and contributed to the growth of this country
For the last 40 to 60 years.

This is just one of the reasons I had to get out of the uk Peter, I can't bear what the country has become.

If they caught every benefit/tax cheat in the country and did not pay any money to immigrants, I can Assure you, you would not get a refund or a benefit/pension increase. so why worry?.

I think you've missed the point of Peter's post, but I don't disagree with your comments though.

Sorry, I didn't make my point clear - What is paid to others bears no relation to the pensions and benefits we receive (Miserable that they are). All State Pensioners and People on standard benefits are well below the poverty line. But it's no use upsetting ourselves because someone else gets more, having contributed nothing. Irritating and frustrating beyond belief, and grossly unfair I know, but completely out of our control. Life can be unfair, I just wish it was occasionally unfair in my favour .

Although I totally agree that UK pensioners get an appalling deal, here are some other figures to balance the picture:-

Immigrants to the UK (including asylum seekers, refugees and professionals invited to take up highly-paid [and highly-taxed] positions) contribute 10% of UK tax revenue. (All immigrants, whether working or not, pay taxes in the form of VAT on their purchases.) The entire immigrant group uses up 9.1% of the tax revenue. There is, therefore, a surplus. Immigrants cost the UK taxpayer nothing and make a positive fiscal contribution. If there were no immigrants, native-born UK taxpayers would have to pay about 1p per pound more in taxes to generate the same revenue level. (Source: Institute for Public Policy Research)

Asylum-seekers are prevented by law from working until their status has changed to that of Refugee. I don’t know how many asylum seekers you’ve met or had dealings with but I’ve known plenty and all they’ve wanted to do is to support themselves in safety and dignity. There are, of course, scroungers of all races, including many British-born - even an MP or three! Nick Clegg promised in his election manifesto that asylum seekers would be allowed to work while their claims are being processed. That would further increase their fiscal benefit to the UK.

Apart from any moral or humanitarian considerations (which are a matter of opinion, and I’m dealing in objectively verifiable facts here), the UK is legally obliged to offer shelter to genuine asylum seekers. No signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees has yet dropped out. Contrary to tabloid opinion, the UK isn’t asylum seekers’ first choice of refuge – it’s 17th down the list in terms of immigrants per head of population. Asylum seekers whose claims fail (thus becoming illegal immigrants if they’re not deported) have their benefits stopped. They receive nothing at all from the public purse and get minimal contributions, if they’re lucky, from charity. (Sources: UK Refugee Council, UNHCR and British Red Cross)

Peter, what was the source of your information? Sounds rather like The Wail to me, although I may be wrong. I prefer to check information like this with primary sources before I make up my mind.

Get well soon Peter x

I am amazed that many people really believe everything they read. I wonder why?
We are born with the intelligence to question. Why believe unvalidated articles without question?
I am an immigrant paying into this country. I truly hope that there are people here with the intelligence to appreciate that I am not a financial burden to them!

I'm not sure it is a case of people not questioning what they read. That seems a little sweeping and does not allow the prospect of personal experience to come into play.

Personally, I have seen primary sources and in SOME instances the figures aren't too far off. But I am sure there are many more who are not so fortunate.

I cannot, however, see how illegal immigrants would be claiming benefits. My experience is that generally they rent properties and fill them to their maximum to minimise rent. This allows them to price up jobs, such as for building works and decorating, at ridiculously low rates. These rates do not allow self employed and legitimate workers to compete; self employed tradesmen are folding up their businesses in their droves as a direct result, us included.

I would imagine that this is not too dissimilar to unqualified contractors working here: it is very frustrating, and financially crippling for genuine tradesmen, and hard to stay objective all the time.

I also worked with refugees and immigrants; some had escaped indisputably horrific situations. They were appalled at the thought of accepting benefits. They lived in dire conditions. For example, we were taught not to use games such as Hangman for teaching purposes in case they reminded students of their previous traumas. However, other immigrants were down right horrible, and openly admitted to 'fleecing' the system. It was all about money for them.

I think the trick is to count your blessings every day, and be grateful for what we have. If you concentrate on what everyone else has, you miss the good things that are right on your doorstep. Being angry doesn't help anyone, least of all you and yours. Nor does casting aspersions.

As you might know or not know I am just out of hospital after having two major ops. In as many weeks so feel very tired but would like to come in on this subject. I had run four English companies from England since 1960 and only been in England 10% of the time bringing money into England all the time. Sorry I am too tired to go on now. Love Peter

Bless, rest well Peter.

@Cave Bunny: I think it is a case of people not questioning what they read. You’ve had close contact with refugees and immigrants; so have I, and no doubt we could both quote dozens of stories as horrifying and heartbreaking as that of HappyChic’s Goran. But most people who hold forth on the drain on the UK economy represented by immigrants have never come into contact with genuine asylum seekers and swallow wholesale the shock-horror stories in The Wail, having never bothered to check the facts for themselves.

A few months ago a good friend of mine here was shocked by a conversation we had, in which my husband and I were telling her various accounts of the extreme horrors endured by asylum seekers we’d known. What particularly shocked her was that many asylum seekers are highly-qualified professional people, often having occupied high positions, who’d dared to speak out against dictatorial regimes and were consequently in genuine fear for their lives. Her reaction was, “I had no idea – I’d always thought they were just scum clinging to the bottoms of lorries.” (my emphasis). She was strongly anti-racist and had no awareness that that was in itself a racist statement. “Scum”?? They’re people, just like the rest of us. She was also a Wail reader, and had never thought to check the lies that they promulgate.

Also, most people seem unaware of the correct terminology. They are evidently unable to distinguish between Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Immigrants and Illegal Immigrants.

As you correctly commented, it’s difficult to see how illegal immigrants can claim benefits, and they certainly have no legal access to benefits. As asylum seekers, they are given benefits at the rate of 75% of basic benefits for a native-born UK citizen – and even living on 100% benefits takes claimants below the poverty line. If their claim for asylum fails, they get no benefits at all thereafter. Some are deported (and some of those to certain death), some stay and go underground, into the cash-in-hand economy. They have no papers, so can get no legal work. Many live on the streets in dire poverty. Home Office decisions on asylum seekers’ claims are frequently callous beyond belief. Many asylum seekers are incarcerated in prison-like holding centres such as Yarlwood and treated brutally by security companies like Group 4, their only crime being to have escaped brutal regimes which threatened their lives.

I’m aware that I’m using emotive language, but these are still facts, not just my opinion – and, believe me, I could produce many, many more facts.

You’re dead right about being grateful for what one has and not casting aspersions. Good grief, most of us here are living a life that most of the world’s population could only dream about.

Peter - I hadn't known you'd been enduring such an ordeal. Worry not - this thread could run and run, or not, depending on people's interest. I wasn't having a shot at you personally. Just concentrate on resting and recovering. Take care - Jenny xxx

In a similar vein, I was told only this morning that some Spanish people believe that the British over here are getting medical treatment without having paid into their system. They don't know that the UK government pay the Spanish health service an amount each year for UK pensioners registered in Spain (I don't know if it is only a set amount or according to treatment received). Also, UK citizens legally registered to work here also pay into the system so are entitled to medical cover but, again, some Spanish seem to think that the majority of British people working here are not doing it legally so should not get medical cover. It seems it doesn't matter which country you live in the "locals" believe the others are getting something for nothing.

The guy we call the mayor of Cantarranas thought all British get 2000 Euros penison a month we put him right and proved it to him, he has now stopped asking us for money. We paid all money for our full pension and NHS at my age of 60, I asked if we could pay more they said yes but you will not get more when you retire.

@Cats-R-Us - Absolutely right. It's so often whispers and inaccuracies. Unfortunately, there are grounds for Spanish resentment of the level of healthcare afforded to British ex-pats. The payment made by the UK government to the Spanish government is agreed at government level, isn't linked to treatment given and isn't adequate compensation for the Spanish healthcare system. I think (but I need to check this) that it's still a lump sum annual payment, rather than a per capita payment. Since moving here nearly 6 years ago, my husband has had cancer surgery, I've had a total hip replacement, my husband continues to receive very expensive drugs for the treatment of Parkinson's and is soon to undergo an extremely expensive surgical intervention for his PD. We've cost the Spanish healthcare system a fortune, had a brilliant level of care and there's no doubt that there's a shortfall in our (or, rather, the UK government's) favour. We'd much rather pay the taxes on our public-sector pensions to the Spanish government, but aren't allowed to do so. Given the amount we've paid over the years in UK taxes and NHI contributions, the UK government really should be paying the Spanish government much more for our healthcare. It does seem very unfair - but I know also that this isn't always the case.

We have paid tax and national health in England and other countries have had very, very little use of them. I would be interested in how many hundreds and thousands of Spanish and other foreigners use the British National Health Service, we are always hear it the one way but not the other. “The English are always ringing their cap in hand in front of the boss’s desk” as my mom would say, my lovely old mom.