ROOF Blog

Asylum seekers refused permission to live in the UK but unable to return to their country of origin should be allowed to work and access health care, a report by a Conservative think-tank said. The Centre for Social Justice proposes setting up a new independent body to rule on asylum claims, made up of a panel of magistrates, with charities and voluntary groups providing support to immigrants until they are returned home or integrated into society. Unsuccessful applicants should continue to receive housing and financial support for up to six months pending their removal. The think-tank found there was a backlog of 280,000 failed applications, which could take 20 years to clear, and added that many of those refused applications face destitution or disappear, drifting into illegal employment, prostitution or crime.

The gap between rich and poor has failed to narrow despite the redistributive effect of taxes and benefits introduced by the Labour government, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. A review of household incomes over the past 30 years revealed that the share of disposable income earned by the top fifth households rose from 36 per cent to 42 per cent between 1977 and 1991. And in spite of Labour’s efforts ‘the pattern that emerged during the 1980s remains largely the same today’. The top fifth of households in 2006/7 received 42 per cent of disposable income while the bottom fifth received just seven per cent. In 1977 19 per cent of children lived in the poorest fifth of homes, now a quarter of children live in the poorest fifth households.

The government unveiled its plans to get one million people off benefits and back to work yesterday. The plan, to ‘transform’ the lives of people currently on benefits, was launched by work and pensions minister James Purnell who said benefit claimants would have to play their part in the economy either with some form of work or in preparing themselves to find work in the future, or face losing some state payments. Only carers, jobless parents of very young children or severely disabled people would be exempt.

Social deprivation, child poverty, and long-term reliance on benefits in parts of Britain have increased over the past decade, a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found. Of the 56 poverty indicators tracked by JRF – including the number of children in low-income families, young adults unemployed and children excluded from school – three-quarters have stalled or are getting worse, and the onset of the recession is making the position worse.

Under the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill new arrivals into the UK will have to ‘earn’ the right to a passport rather than automatically receive it after five years’ residence. Migrants will need to demonstrate good English skills and a knowledge of life in Britain. People who do no voluntary work will qualify only after eight years and those who become unemployed will be asked to leave. Social benefits including social housing will not be available to migrants who have not completed a probationary citizenship of one-five years.

The Queen’s speech outlined just 13 new bills for the new parliamentary session - focusing on helping Britain through the economic downturn. The centrepiece of the proposed legislation is a banking bill designed to improve financial stability and allow the Treasury and FSA to intervene to prevent another financial crisis. A welfare reform bill plans to make the long-term unemployed start training courses or face benefit cuts, as more councils extend the use of lie detector tests for people claiming benefits. There will be ‘incentives’ for those returning to work and ‘consequences’ for those who do not.