The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) faces mounting pressure to close a benefits loophole that allows EU citizens with settled status to claim UK unemployment benefits while living abroad, after Poland's government published a step-by-step guide encouraging its citizens to do so before leaving the UK.
Poland's 'Powroty' Website Urges Benefit Claims
The Polish government website 'Powroty' advises Poles to check their eligibility for DWP benefits before departing the UK, stating: "The UK unemployment benefit is higher than the equivalent benefit paid in Poland. It's important to apply for it before leaving. Once you return to Poland, you won't be able to start the benefits process." Under post-Brexit rules, EU citizens who obtained settled status before December 2020 can continue to receive DWP benefits in another EU country for up to three months while seeking work.
Political Reaction: 'Britain Has Become a Laughing Stock'
Helen Whately, the Conservative Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, condemned the situation: "Britain has become world-renowned for our soft-touch benefits handouts. When other nations are advising their own citizens on how to game benefits in the UK, it is clear how desperately broken our system has become. We have become a laughing stock." She added that the Conservatives have vowed to end rules allowing foreign citizens to claim benefits to cut the ballooning benefits bill.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said: "This is yet another outrageous benefits abuse on British taxpayers. Reform will stop all this nonsense."
Public Outrage on Social Media
The revelation sparked fury online. One user on X wrote: "What a f***ing joke everyone… seriously… paying benefits for people not living in the UK." Another said: "We are an incredibly soft touch. Our political class have been stealing from us for decades." A third commented: "Firesale Britain: everything must go." A fourth added: "Always reassuring to know that the taxes you pay are put to good use…" Another user noted: "Thousands of Poles have already left UK since Brexit to enjoy better growth and wages in their own country; our system still offers some of them a soft landing payment on the way out. Britain isn't just a place you can earn and send money home from; it's now a place whose benefits can follow you home if you tick the right boxes. If that doesn't scream 'failing state with upside‑down incentives', what does?"
Government Response
A Labour Party government spokesman said: "The Withdrawal Agreement is a reciprocal arrangement negotiated by the previous government, and it is not a mechanism to maximise claims on British taxpayers."
