£17bn, the true cost of immigration to the UK every year: Figure calculated as gap between amount migrants pay in taxes and consume in public services
The figure includes a £1.2billion annual net cost of migrants from Europe
They consume more in public services and benefits than they pay in taxes
Report was seized on by campaigners for Britain to leave the EU
By James Slack Political Editor For The Daily Mail
Published: 18:50 EST, 16 May 2016 | Updated: 04:12 EST, 17 May 2016
The cost to Britain of mass immigration is £16.8billion every year, a report claims today.
The figure includes a £1.2billion annual net cost of migrants from Europe, who consume far more in public services and benefits than they pay in taxes.
Today's report - based on figures from the official Labour Force Survey - was seized on by campaigners for Britain to quit the European Union.
They said it demolished claims by George Osborne and the Treasury that EU immigration is a benefit to the nation's finances. Last year alone, there were 800,000 arrivals – or one every 40 seconds.
The campaign group Migrationwatch compared the amount paid in income tax, national insurance, VAT and other taxes by migrants with the cost of providing them with health, education, policing, roads and other services.
The research found the gap between the contributions made by migrants from the EEA – which is the EU, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – and the amount consumed by its citizens was £1.2billion last year, or over £3million a day.
For migrants from outside the EEA, the bill was £15.6billion. Experts explain the gap by the fact that the non-EEA migrants will include people who arrived here as asylum seekers, who are less likely to go on to get well-paid jobs.
Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of Migration Watch, said: 'This report shows that EU migration, taken as a whole, is not making the positive fiscal contribution that has so often been claimed.
'Furthermore, it is adding to the rapidly increasing pressures on housing and public services. It also contributes to our population increase of half a million every year – roughly a city the size of Liverpool.'
Ex-Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for Brexit, said: 'We know that uncontrolled migration is placing a huge strain on the NHS, schools, and other public services. That's a challenge for councils to cater to - as well as a cost to families, who struggle to gain fair access to the services that their taxes pay for.
'Not only that, uncontrolled migration also hits people's pockets because it puts downward pressure on wages as well as increasing competition for jobs. Now, this report lays bare the wider financial cost to taxpayers, which runs to the billions every year - including £1.2bn from European immigration alone.
'It's time to take back control of our borders, and implement a fairer immigration policy - one that works for the UK.'
The Migrationwatch report separately dismisses as 'nonsense' last week's claim by the Treasury that EEA nationals pay five times more in taxes than they get back.
The figures were based on the fact that the migrants paid around £3billion in income tax and national Insurance, but got back only £0.5billion in child benefit and tax credits.
Crucially, however, this does not consider the cost of schools, hospitals or other public services.
Migrationwatch said: 'They only compare receipts of income tax and National Insurance with payments of child benefit and tax credits. The same comparison shows the UK general population paying six times more than they get.
'While on the one hand the comparison does not include taxes like VAT and excise duties, on the other hand it doesn't include housing benefit or any other DWP payments, and most importantly does not include the cost of any public services whatsoever. This is nonsense. No one would describe this sum as a net fiscal contribution
'If the calculation were carried out for the UK population as a whole it would give a 'net fiscal contribution' of over £220 billion. If that were so, the UK would not be in deficit!'
Ex-Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for Brexit, said: 'We know that uncontrolled migration is placing a huge strain on the NHS, schools, and other public services'
Ex-Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for Brexit, said: 'We know that uncontrolled migration is placing a huge strain on the NHS, schools, and other public services'
The £16.8billion relates to migrants who have arrived in Britain from the EU at any date.
A second section of the report looked at only migrants who had arrived since 2001. This found that migrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries were costing £2.8 billion a year.
However, this was counter-balanced by a positive net contribution of the same amount by migrants from the 'old' EU, which includes the likes of France and Germany.
The study follows the methodology of the widely-publicised research by the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at University College London, which was released in 2013. Migrationwatch has applied the most recent available data to the study.
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