§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many EC citizens (other than British citizens) are living in the United Kingdom on social security payments, how they qualify for such payments, and what are the reciprocal arrangements for unemployed UK citizens in the rest of the EC.
§ Baroness TrumpingtonI assume that the noble Baroness is referring to claims for supplementary benefit. European Community nationals who go to another European Community country to seek work are eligible for social assistance there on the same terms as that country's own nationals. However, there is agreement in a 1968 European Community Council Declaration that European Community nationals who become a charge on another country's public funds may be asked to leave. No records are kept of the numbers of non-British European Community claimants currently receiving supplementary benefit, but in 1986, to date, a total of 1189 claims was reported.