Monday - November 02, 2009

JUST ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF BELONGING TO THE EUROPEEON UNION

Provided of course you’re willing to hand over a bit of national sovereignty.  Which you do if you happen to be England.

At first glance I thought this was going to be a boring story, but I read it and found it to be interesting after all, and frustrating as well.

Meanwhile, construction continues next door on what has to be (when done and paid for) a million pound project.  As in, £1,000,000. I think at today’s rate of exchange, in American dollars it comes to something in the way of $1,600,000. 
Our water supply sits very scarily only a few inches below the surface and at one point is above ground, and runs across the property next door. It’s how they did it when these places were built.  But something happening, or will when they fill in the driveway area in a few weeks time.  Our water pipe will be covered of course BUT .... based on what I see of the area to be covered, that water line is going to be dangerously close to the surface.
Spoke to the foreman this morning who could only shrug and say he didn’t know what was going to happen outside of simply tossing some dirt on top of the line.

So ......  We have called the Water Dept. and they are sending out an inspector on the morning of the fifth.

We’re now 7 or 8 months into probate and still no freekin end to it AND ... the postal service is calling out more strikes while (it is reported) 130 million envelopes are stacking up undelivered.  The service has hired thousands of workers to fill in for the strikers.  But we had mail delivered today.

Notice from our credit card folks we’ve been charged $15 late payment on our USA card for the last statement period.  Not surprised. It arrived at our door only four days before it was due, and the statement showed the payment was only three days late.

Taxpayers give £20m benefits to Polish children - even if they have never stepped foot in Britain

By Andy Dolan
02nd November 2009

Taxpayers are funding child benefit for more than 50,000 children of migrant workers - even though the youngsters still live in their home countries.

Treasury figures show that Poles make up the vast majority of the payments made under a loophole in EU legislation.

Benefits are paid to 37,941 children in the former Eastern Bloc country, who have one or both parents working in the UK.

The cost is estimated at more than £24million a year.

The number of Polish children being subsidised by British taxpayers has jumped by 6,542 in two years despite a slowdown in immigration because of the recession.

Under ‘social responsibility coordinating regulations’ drawn up in Brussels, EU migrant workers who pay taxes in their host country are able to claim benefits and tax credits as soon as they start work, even if they have left their families behind.

The tax credits could produce an additional £100 a week to a migrant with children.

Workers from Poland and seven other Eastern European countries who joined the EU in 2004 are entitled to out-of-work benefits only after 12 months of taxed work.

British handouts are much higher than many other countries’ payments - particularly in Eastern Europe.

In some EU countries, such as Poland and France, child benefit is means-tested.

Migrants living and working in the UK claim the benefit in their home country, but if that works out to be less than the UK allowance, the Treasury tops up the difference.

Where a family is ineligible for child benefit in their homeland - possibly because they earn too much - they can claim the full UK rate of £20 a week for the first child and £13.20 for others.

In Poland, the equivalent of child benefit amounts to between £3 and £5 a week.

The Treasury has refused to put a figure on the total cost of supporting youngsters abroad through child benefit and tax credits.

But even if most of the Polish claimants are not getting the full rate from Britain, the total cost of the payouts to Polish families alone is estimated at more than £24million a year.

The total for all 50,586 EU children would come to around £33million.

Philip Hammond, the Tory Treasury spokesman, said: ‘With Britain facing a debt crisis and the Government’s child poverty strategy in tatters, it beggars belief that Gordon Brown is continuing to send millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to children who don’t even live in this country.

‘It’s yet more evidence that he is completely out of touch with the concerns of ordinary families struggling to make ends meet.’

Ania Heasley, who runs a website which helps Poles settle in Britain, said: ‘Originally people were surprised and said “This is great”, but now there is so much information in Poland about the benefits that they all know about it.

They are so happy about the welfare system.’

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 11/02/2009 at 10:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • UK •  
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