The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again

Ruth Grove-White (@RuthGWhite) is a policy officer at the Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN)

Earlier this week, the front page of the Daily Mail pronounced:

‘Thousands of illegal workers claiming benefits: Loophole in the law costs taxpayers millions’

This story was also repeated in the Daily Express, and referenced in a Parliamentary Question by Conservative MP Priti Patel on Monday, who asked for assurance that this matter would be addressed by the government.

But was this story a real expose of ‘welfare abuse’ or a case of smoke and mirrors?

The story, as it ran in the Daily Mail, informed readers that 155,000 irregular migrants have been claiming sickness benefits and maternity pay, at a cost to the public purse estimated by an unnamed government source to run to ‘tens of millions’ of pounds.

But not to worry – the source reassured the Daily Mail that this ‘incredibly unfair’ loophole will be closed by the government’s Welfare Bill, due for release this week, which will start a ‘root and branch overhaul’ of the UK welfare system.

The analysis presented by the Daily Mail turns out, however, to be based on loose ‘guess-timates’, rather than on any new evidence about the number of irregular claimants of certain benefits.

The basis for the story is that claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), paternity, maternity and sick pay are not routinely asked to present proof of the right to work in the UK when they make a claim – these benefits can be granted on the basis of presentation of a National Insurance number. In theory this could mean that those working here with a false NI number could claim benefits to which they are not technically entitled, despite potentially having paid into the welfare system via taxes and NI contributions.

The problem, as asserted by the London School of Economics in 2006, is that there is no way of knowing how many irregular migrants may have claimed particular benefits in the UK, or even how many people are working irregularly here. Rather than a picture of rampant abuse of the welfare system, however, available research into irregular migrants indicates that they occupy an unenviable position at the bottom of the labour market, characterised by insecurity and often exploitation.

Interviews with irregular workers indicate that their primary concern is often to avoid detection by the authorities, making many unlikely to attempt to claim benefits to which they are not entitled. The lack of concrete information about this group of immigrants should not be a license to print guesswork as fact.

Ultimately, the timing of the Daily Mail article - released in the days ahead of Iain Duncan Smith’s Welfare Bill - seems to tell the real story. But propagating misinformation about immigrants to sell the public this policy is cynical indeed.

Mehdi Hasan

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/greg_sheppard/status/37882133582331904 Greg Sheppard

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/carydc/status/37882450424107008 Cary D Conover

The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again …: The basis for the story is… http://tinyurl.com/4hfrwcd #HILARY
http://twitter.com/founderfire/status/37882456241610752 Founder Fire

#teaparty #912 The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again …: The ba… http://tinyurl.com/4hfrwcd #RIGHTTOWORK
http://twitter.com/worldenron/status/37882585690546176 worldenron

RT @migrants_rights: RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh
http://twitter.com/migrants_rights/status/37888360873865216 Migrants Rights Net

@ruthgwhite writes: Daily Mail – Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh
http://twitter.com/sean_gittins/status/37891700311605248 sean gittins

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/carydc/status/37900377038786560 Cary D Conover

The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: The basis for the story is tha… http://tinyurl.com/4wd93ah #HILARY
http://twitter.com/gmbmenetwork/status/37903740967202816 GM BME Network

RT @migrants_rights: RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh
http://twitter.com/oxunicampaign/status/37905663640207361 Demsey Abwe

RT @migrants_rights RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh
http://twitter.com/glyn_piggles/status/37912622695329792 Glyn Phillipson

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/press_not_sorry/status/37917679792824321 Press Not Sorry

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
Marion Walter

I should like the Press Council to do something serious about this – bit Iam not sure that it will. Really the journalist concerned and the paper appear to be into race hatred and providing ammo for the EDL (English Defense League.
http://twitter.com/mikehr_uk/status/37952455199293440 Mike Russell

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/rctunison/status/37975684882235393 RCT UNISON

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/pkobi/status/37979974048813056 peter kobi

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/crixtechnoir/status/37989824203997184 Toffee TechNoir

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/jldowling/status/37994646776844288 jldowling

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/davisros/status/38041078590484480 Ros Davis

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite
http://twitter.com/migrants_rights/status/38148348678639616 Migrants Rights Net

@ruthgwhite writes: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh via @leftfootfwd
Pegasus

They never do anything and the damage has been done. Best case scenario they would have to write that the number of claimants they were given was not double-checked.

Daily Mail are worse than scum and completely out of order.
http://twitter.com/heavencrawley/status/38169193920729088 Heaven Crawley

RT @migrants_rights: @ruthgwhite writes: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh via @le …
http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/ Jan

This is the paragraph from the governemnt’s impact assessment, published today. Remember Daily Mail claims 155k illegal workers claiming benefits! (they would need to have some clear data to back that up you would imagine):

Due to the difficulty in obtaining information on illegal workers, we do not know the number of people who will be affected by this legislation. Research by the LSE and the IPPR suggested that there may be around 620,000 adults who could be illegally present in the UK and do not have an entitlement to work. Although a large proportion of this number will have arrived on visitor visas, are unlikely to be working and will in time leave, if we assume that half of these were employed, and half of those employed in jobs were paying tax and national insurance contributions, this would produce an estimate of 155,000 (or 0.5% of the number of people working in the UK) who might be eligible to claim the contributory benefits or statutory payments despite having no entitlement to work in the UK.
http://twitter.com/migrants_rights/status/38277791900237824 Migrants Rights Net

The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read the update on this under comment no. 3
http://twitter.com/rosanwo/status/38278094821396480 babatunde rosanwo

RT @migrants_rights: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read the update on this und …
http://twitter.com/thereisawayjose/status/38279325987901440 Jose J Castillo

R @HeyJude408
RT @migrants_rights The Daily Mail: Propagating misinfo about immigrants.Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read http://tl.gd/8t4qkc
http://twitter.com/migrants_rights/status/38287811933114368 Migrants Rights Net

The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read the comment no. 3
http://twitter.com/ipswichcab/status/38315138016747520 IpswichCAB

RT @migrants_rights: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read the comment no. 3
http://twitter.com/natecla/status/38528486067019776 natecla

RT @migrants_rights: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again http://bit.ly/g44DXh Read the comment no. 3
Kjartan Sveinsson

I’ve always wondered why the DM and its readership have made the decision to be passionately anti-immigrationist. Of all the causes in the world, they think this is a just and important one. Never mind child poverty, the environment, world peace, or any other politically correct topic. No, it’s far more important to campaign against the welfare abuse of irregular migrants. That (along with eliminating wheelie bins) is the most noble cause worthy of Daily Mail support. Baffling.
Poppy

I think the Mail, and the rest of the right-wing press, which spread lies and hatred about immigrants, public sector workers, disadvantaged people and anyone else they don’t perceive as fitting their “middle class conservative values” ought to be required to print evidence to back up their claims. It’s frankly scary how much influence they have. Often people at work tell me that it is the fault of immigrants that there are no jobs. My usual riposte is that it’s the fault of Tory governments and capitalism that there are no jobs, but they refuse to believe it. Very, very scary.
http://twitter.com/myinfamy/status/39825739763298305 Daniel Pitt

RT @leftfootfwd: The Daily Mail: Propagating misinformation about immigrants. Again: http://bit.ly/hYF1aq by @RuthGWhite