Ukip plans to stop benefit claimants buying tobacco and alcohol

Proposals to be announced at conference also include ban on welfare payments to EU or other foreign citizens living in UK Some long-term benefit claimants would be banned from using their benefit cash to buy cigarettes, alcohol or satellite TV subscriptions under proposals due to be presented at the UK Independence party's spring conference on Saturday. The proposed ban on paying for satellite TV comes only a fortnight after it was disclosed that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and biggest shareholder of News Corp, had met the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, for the first time, prompting speculation that the Sun may support the party. Ukip's welfare plans also include proposals to stop paying benefits to EU or other foreign citizens living in the UK. Nick Clegg and David Cameron are delivering speeches on immigration either side of the Ukip conference. Ukip's success in the Eastleigh byelection, when it beat the Tories to take second place, prompted all three main parties to re-examine their immigration policies. In his speech on Friday, Clegg signaled he was abandoning the Liberal Democrat 2010 election promise to offer earned amnesty for illegal immigrants who have been in the UK for at least 10 years. He also proposed higher fines for employers taking on illegal immigrants and suggested a repayable immigrant bond. On Monday Cameron will focus on how to reduce EU citizens' access to key benefits, arguing that the generosity of the benefits acts as a draw for EU citizens. He is unable to impose direct border controls because of EU provisions on free movement of labor. The prime minister wants the UK to be seen as one of the toughest states in Europe for new migrants to get access to benefits as part of a drive to reduce the "pull factors" and reassure the public over fears of a surge when restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians working in Britain are lifted in December. Ministers have been told that any measures will have to apply to all newly arrived EU migrants and cannot be imposed solely on those coming from Romania and Bulgaria. The European commission has, however, advised that it is possible under the EU's free movement directive to impose quite radical restrictions on access to benefits and services once migrants have been in Britain for three months. "The right to move and reside freely comes with certain conditions attached which are laid down in the EU's free movement directive from 2004. EU citizens have a right to come and stay for up to three months with a valid passport or identity card. To stay for longer, they need to be in employment or have sufficient resources and sickness insurance not to be a burden on public funds," said a commission source. Ministers are understood to be looking at introducing a compulsory registration certificate or "residence permit" for EU citizens living in Britain for more than three months. The permit would give them access to health and education service and provide proof of their immigration status for claims for welfare benefits. The cabinet sub-committee chaired by the immigration minister, Mark Harper, has been looking at European benefit systems. In Spain, access to unemployment and other benefits is severely restricted for citizens from other EU countries. The proposed ban on buying alcohol, nicotine or satellite TV comes in a Ukip policy paper suggesting long-term claimants should be given an electronic spending card that would be unusable for these products. The electronic card would not apply to all claimants, but instead "those who have an addiction and those who choose a lifestyle on benefits". Janice Atkinson, the report's author, said: "No one would be stigmatized through an electronic spending card as it would be like using a credit card at the cash desk. There is enormous public support for a card that mirrors the principles of Beveridge. We have gone too far in this country by funding the feckless lifestyle." In a wide-ranging speech on immigration, Clegg admitted his party election policy of earned citizenship for illegal immigrants who had been in the UK for 10 years "was seen by many as a reward for breaking the law". Clegg said he had asked the former local government minister Andrew Stunell to review Liberal Democrat immigration policy, but argued the earned citizenship policy "risked undermining public confidence in the immigration system". He added that confidence in the system was an essential building block of cohesion and tolerance. Lib Dem polling has shown the so-called amnesty was one of the party's most unpopular policies and was seen as a major drag in attracting center-ground voters. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/22/ukip-benefits-claimants-tobacco-alcohol