Brexit is not the solution. The UK needs a state welfare system reform.
Ana Paula Picasso
Content Marketing Manager | Copywriter | Project Manager | Podcaster | Author
My friends are divided by the EU referendum. Some are campaigning on social media for Britain to leave and it seems they have good arguments for it like in this article.
One of the main arguments was the strain the EU migrants are putting on the state welfare system, a system really made for those 'who really need'. The Daily Mail (the UK news paper with highest circulation) loves to publish stories how EU migrants claiming benefits are allegedly funding towns in Romania for instance.
I'm not a British history expert, but for what I could gather, the National Insurance contribution was introduced just after the WW2. The man behind the idea was William Beveridge - that way "every British citizen would be covered, regardless of income or lack of it. Those who lacked jobs and homes would be helped. Those who were sick, would be cured.", quoting this Guardian article.
Which I think must have helped people enormously in those days. Needless to say, the world is very different today.
Let's take a look at another EU country: Sweden. They also have a welfare system like the UK. However, things are a little different there. They have the equivalent of our National Insurance number which is called Personnummer (literally, Person's number), but it's more than that.
Without the personnummer you can't open a Swedish bank account, join a gym or get a mobile phone contract. You can get a pay-as-you-go SIM card but even so, if you want to add credit online, you can't do it without it. Believe me, I tried. You definitely can't work or claim benefits without one.
There are different procedures to get a persosnummer for someone from the EU and those outside the EU. I will talk only about the procedure for EU citizens.
If you are a citizen of a EU or EEA country and are planning to live in Sweden for one year or more, you are generally required to be registered in the Swedish Population Register (folkbokf?rd). After that then you can apply for the personnumer. Also waiting times can be a bit brutal, like 4 to 6 weeks.
To apply, you will need to be able to either:
- Have a job offer in Sweden (and with proof – the easy way)
- Evidence that you can support yourself with some form of regular income (with proof – really hard)
You will also need to show:
- Your passport
- Your E111 Health Insurance Card (if you are from the UK, but any government backed health insurance also works)
- Someone/something that can confirm your address
However, if you are a job seeker things are much more complicated. You can only be granted right of residence (uppeh?llsr?tt) as a job-seeker for up to six months. You can therefore not be registered in the Swedish Population Register (folkbokf?rd) as a job-seeker.
I simply couldn't turn up in Sweden (I'm a British citizen btw) tomorrow without a job and start claiming benefits.
On the other hand, in the UK, anyone from the EU can turn up, after a couple of weeks get an appointment for their NI number and start claiming job-seeker's allowance for months (or years) to end. Plus, housing benefits and if you have children, child benefits and other benefits that I, myself, don't even know it.
I think it's not an EU problem - I think the UK needs to look into their welfare system more closely and re-think how that would work in this new reality. I use the word 'new' very loosely. How come no-one thought about that before 2002, when the EU was introduced. Of course the influx of EU migrants would cause a strain on the welfare system, it's undeniable.
But to use it as an argument to leave the EU, it's rather naive. People would still come to the UK regardless.
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Ex Chairman County Durham Sports
8 年The Brexit will kill off the NHS, the vote to leave will mean that we cannot spend ￡120bn per year keeping this going plus the Social care system. It will have to be changed over the next four years whoever is in power
Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations at eConnect
8 年I would agree that root and branch welfare reform is indeed needed. But in the UK at least even looking at this and especially at "our NHS" is something of a shibboleth and has a bunch of people immediately decrying how the "most vulnerable" in society will be disadvantaged. As a result there has been rather less debate and rather more throwing of vitriol from the various sides. But without debate there will never be a real exploration of alternatives and of viewpoints. Brexit, in this context may not be "the" solution, but it is "a" solution, and should be considered as such.
Searching for work. No habits. MAEduMgt PGDE BA DipIntSt HRcert
8 年Leaving the EU is right. I never agreed to group called SAARC in South Asia. Feudalistic tendencies in grouping.
Director - RMS Projects Ltd
8 年Great article
Design Engineer EEP Telecom Services
8 年Leaving is a start. If we stayed we would not be able to reform anything unless the 27 other states agreed and then that's if the central non elected decision makers agreed with it. Sometimes you have to take the chance otherwise the UK will cease to exist as a democracy that governs itself. The uk will have to change all its songs like rule britania and land of hope and glory and then what next removal of the monarchy? There will be no need for parliament so that institution will go then what will this country become just another blob in the EU map.