Bulgarians. Romanians can claim child benefit - immediately!

The only thing to be done is to seek to ensure that our benefit system is not a further ‘pull factor’ for EU migration to Britain. Here is where child benefit kicks in. On present arrangements, a Bulgarian or Romanian working in Britain could claim for two children and receive an amount that was equivalent to a week’s wages at the minimum wage in his home country. This is a huge incentive to head for Britain, or for the Netherlands or Germany, which are the only other major EU countries which pay child benefit to non-resident children.