The Great Migrant Benefit Figures Fiddling

The previous post's message about Daily Mail Island is yet again brought home by another story attacking immigration through the use of dodgy statistics. The headline clearly invites the reader to believe that 1 in 6 migrants IS claiming WELFARE benefits. However, when you actually scrutinise the figures you will see that the number of people claiming benefits through unemployment is low. But the Mail is clever. It lets reader prejudice gloss over such factual niceties. Just over 4,000 out of 700,000 claim benefits for unemployment or homelessness. That's 1 in 175. The story had at the time of writing over 50 comments. Only one was criticising the story. Don't know how that slipped through..

Many of those cited in the figures are claiming so-called top up benefits like Working Tax Credits. Given the tendency for such workers to do low paid jobs, this is not surprising. Of course on DM Island any immigrants would not have a minimum wage or be entitled to extra benefits brought in by the Labour Government. Remember, the Tories opposed the minimum wage saying that it would cause unemployment. The reality is that it reduces profits for the capitalist piggies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=476731&in_page_id=1770

Strangely, after writing this, the headline on the story changed to reflect the supposed cost rather than the 1 in 6 figure.