Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much is paid in benefits to claimants who are citizens of each of the 27 other EU member states, and how many such claimants there are from each of those countries.

Information on benefit receipt by nationality is not available.

The Department has published statistics on working age benefit recipients claiming within 6 months of National Insurance Number (NINO) registration. This information is known as “Nationality at point of National Insurance number registration of DWP benefit claimants” and is included in the “Statistical Bulletin on National Insurance Number Allocations to Adult Overseas Nationals”.

The Government is looking at ways to reform the current administrative system under Universal Credit so that it will systematically record nationality and immigration status of migrants who make a claim.