We don't have to provide them with benefits unless they are working or actively looking for work, and then only once they have been here for a while.
Sure they are entitled to health care, but that's no different to us being entitled to healthcare if we are in another EU country. Indeed there was an item on the radio this morning where they were interviewing a bunch of Brit ex-pats in Spain and they were praising the Spanish health system, that they could access, and expressing concern about what would happen if we left.
And don't forget that EU migrants contribute much more in taxation than they take in benefits and or cost public services, and also that the typical demographic of someone coming to the UK from other EU countries is that they are coming to work, are not of an age where they are likely to be a burden on the NHS etc. That is rather different to the demographic of Brits in Spain I would imagine.
There is an interesting programme called "How To Get a Council House" on Channel 4 - not sure if there is a thread about this on here.
The programme is about people turning up to the London borough of Hounslow Housing Office to get either housing benefit to help with private rental accommodation or preferably to get a council house. It says that migrants getting priority for housing is a myth. Migrants are treated the same as everyone else.
As there is an extreme shortage of council houses, the Housing Officers try to help those they think are in most need. Hence a Romanian migrant called Florin got JSA for a while, then went back to Romania, got his wife and 5 kids and came back to the UK despite not having a job or any accommodation.. Everyone helping him in Britain acknowledged it was highly irresponsible of him to do this. He and his family spent a couple of nights in a homeless shelter with the 5 kids, and then the Housing Officers decided he qualified for help because he was actively looking for work and had received JSA in the past, and because he had 5 kids with him who couldn't be left on the streets, he and his family were housed in Birmingham as the rent the council paid on his behalf was cheaper there than in London - it was £750 per month.
He was still unemployed 5 weeks later - though obviously it's possible he is working cash in hand. In theory his benefits will stop after 3 months if he hasn't found employment, but with 5 kids it is unlikely that the family will be turfed out even if he hasn't found a job. I doubt the council are going to let 5 little kids sleep rough. He said he left Romania and brought his kids because he could not bear to watch them starve and that there was a better life for them in the UK. He wants them to go to school and learn English and have a better future than they would have in Romania.
I think it is this kind of situation that the Leave campaign think should be stopped - where someone foreign who hasn't paid into the system gets priority over someone else who has paid into the system through NI or taxes, because the foreign person is in greater need. So I assume Florin and his wife and kids would not have been allowed into the country under the policy advocated by the Leave campaign without him having either a firm job offer or a realistic prospect of employment because he had skills that were in short supply in Britain, and without showing that they would not be a burden on the State.
I am not sure what the Leave campaign think about British people who have not paid into the system being prioritised for help with housing over migrants who have paid into the system through NI and taxes but who then become unemployed through no fault of their own.
