David Cameron announces tough measures for new Eastern European migrants seeking benefits

UK immigration queue for members of the EU (Rex Features)

New arrivals from the European Union will face strict curbs on receiving benefits and rough-sleepers will be deported, David Cameron announced last night amid fears among ministers of a major influx of Romanians and Bulgarians in January.

His intervention follows pressure from Tory right-wingers to defy the European Commission and retain transitional controls on the right of people from the two countries to work in Britain.

The Prime Minister set out a series of measures, supported by the Liberal Democrats, designed to deter benefit tourism from Romania and Bulgaria when the controls are lifted on January 1.

The rule that incomers can receive out-of-work benefits indefinitely once they have been in the country for between one and three months will be swept away.

Under the new rules, they will not be eligible for benefits until after three months’ residence. They will then only be able to claim for a maximum of six months – and only if they can prove they have “a genuine prospect of employment”.

Claimants will have to prove they are earning a certain amount before they can receive benefits such as income support and newly-arrived jobseekers will be barred from receiving housing benefit.

Writing in the Financial Times, Mr Cameron also raised the prospect of EU nationals without a permanent address being deported and prevented for a year from returning.

He said: “If people are not here to work – if they are begging or sleeping rough – they will be removed. They will then be barred from re-entry for 12 months, unless they can prove they have a proper reason to be here, such as a job.”

The measures threaten to put the Government on a collision course with the Commission, which forbids member states from discriminating between its citizens and other EU nationals over benefits.

Mr Cameron, who said he shared public concerns what will happen when the controls on Romania and Bulgaria are removed, also set out some of his priorities for renegotiating Britain’s place in the EU ahead of the membership referendum he has promised if the Conservatives win the next election.

He said he wanted the concept of complete free movement across the EU to be returned to a “more sensible basis”.

The Prime Minister added: “We need to do the same with welfare. For example, free movement shouldn’t be about exporting child benefit. I want to work with our European partners to address this.”

He suggested that people from future EU member states should only be allowed full free movement when their nation’s gross domestic product reached a certain level.