LONDON
By Gokhan Kurtaran
The 2014 UK benefits bill is expected to reduce immigration benefits, as debates overimmigration restrictions continue.
The bill announced that 112.5 billion will be allocated to social welfare in 2014 out of the total 718 billion UK public spending budget.
Last year the UK government allocated 116.6 billion for its overall benefits fund from the 675.1 billion public spending budget.
However, the official figures as yet do not state how much of the social spending budget will be specifically allocated to immigration benefits.
Samuel Tombs, a Europe Economist for the London-based research company Capital Economics, told AA that public attitudes towards benefit spending in general have hardened since the recession.
"All of the main political parties are now taking a tougher stance on benefit spending, with the Conservative Party wishing to extend cuts in welfare spending into the next parliament (2015-2020). Opinion polls suggest that this policy has public support."
Tombs believes that the UK`s economic recovery is sustainable and that Capital Economics expects GDP to grow by approximately 3 percent this year and next.
NatCen Social Research's Head of Communication, Leigh Marshall adds that its Social Research's British Social Attitudes survey shows that 77 percent of the UK public want to see a reduction in immigration. However, despite concerns about unemployment rates, falling wages, spending cuts, and high profile debates over migration from Romania and Bulgaria, fewer people (47 percent) now believe that immigration is bad for the economy, compared with 52 percent the year before.
However, official economic data reveals that the UK will still remain an attractive place for immigrants despite the new restrictions. Eurostats' economic figures show that the UK`s young unemployment figures of 21 percent are only marginally better than those of Romania and Bulgaria, which stand at 22.7 and 28 percent respectively.
Joining the EU in 2007, both Romanian and Bulgarian citizens finally gained equal rights to work freely across the EU seven years after their accession.
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