Asked by: Baroness Jowell (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what work his Department has commissioned on the use by migrants of UK welfare systems.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The previous government did not collect data, we are rectifying and the data collected on migrants' use of the welfare system continues to grow as the current welfare reforms are rolled out. For example under the recently strengthened Habitual Residence Test we have started to record nationality and immigration status.
Under Universal Credit we will also make better records of claimants circumstances including nationality.