20% of unemployment benefit claimants are non-Irish

One in five people claiming unemployment benefit are non- Irish nationals from other EU countries — a quarter of them from Britain — according to a major report on the impact of unemployed migrants on social welfare budgets.

The survey coincides with an announcement by Social Affairs Minister Joan Burton, of gardaí checks on people — Irish and non-Irish citizens — to identify social welfare fraud.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland warned such checks must not single out any particular group of people or communities. “There is no evidence of social welfare fraud being more prevalent among migrant communities,” said the council’s Denise Charlton.

Ireland had one of the biggest inflows of workers from central and eastern Europe in the boom years who boosted the country’s wealth by more than 3%. There are 260,000 living in the country, accounting for 7.6% of the population and about 80% have been living in the country for more than five years.

But more migrants appear to have lost their jobs over the past four years compared to the local population. Close to 18% of those still in the country are unemployed compared to a jobless rate of 14.5% among Irish nationals.

The report points out a much higher proportion of migrants in Ireland (87%) are of working age compared to other receiving countries, while the purchasing power of Irish benefits is the highest after Belgium.

Germany, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, has just 2.5% of EU migrants receiving unemployment benefit, while the figure for Ireland is 20.5%. Just over a quarter of these come from Britain, two thirds are from the newer EU countries including Poland and Lithuania, and 7% from the older states such as Spain and France.

The report says an estimated 30% of non-active EU migrants have made claims for jobseeker allowance and according to a Dáil question 79% of such claims made in 2011 were refused on the basis of the habitual residence test — that a person must be living in the country for two years before they qualify for aid.

The report quoted some recent Irish research that said welfare benefits did not influence the initial migration decision but in the context of the recession and rising unemployment, “welfare benefits may gain in importance, determining migrants to stay on in Ireland despite the tough economic climate”.

A higher proportion of EU migrants receive a non-contributory Irish state pension than the national population, although they tend to have a lower share of over 65s. This is despite more than two thirds of migrants over 65 years of age leaving the country over the past few years and is in contrast to Spain and Cyprus where many EU citizens have chosen to retire for the lifestyle.

The report shows a big jump in the numbers of Irish people going to other EU countries of 16% in just three years — the biggest increase after Greece.