Migrants who won't learn English to be stripped of housing benefits under Tories

Foreigners will be stripped of hundreds of pounds worth of housing benefits if they refuse to learn English under a Conservative majority government, The Telegraph has learnt. Doctors and nurses will also have to tell migrants who cannot speak English where they can learn the language under proposals being drawn up by the Conservatives. The details emerged after Theresa May made a manifesto pledge to implement “new incentives and penalties” to get migrants learning English if they are re-elected. Government sources have told The Telegraph the Conservatives plan to put “rocket boosters” on current rules stripping benefits from people who refuse to learn English.

Theresa May’s officials have met with the Department of Work and Pensions advisers to discuss how to widen current sanctions to include to housing and sickness benefits after May’s election. New changes have got the backing of Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, with one DWP source saying: “Iain and Theresa are on the same page on this.” The changes would mark a major expansion of a controversial policy implemented last year to punish claimants who refuse to learn English. It emerged after Mrs May outlined the Conservatives’ counter-extremism strategy and put promoting British values “more assertively” at the heart of her plans. In a major speech on extremism the Home Secretary pledged to ensure Imams and other religious speakers in “pastoral roles” speak English and to grow the number of language classes available.

There are 750,000 adults in Britain who either cannot speak English well or at all, according to Government statistics. Current rules implemented last year force unemployed migrants to take English lessons if they cannot speak the language or lose jobseekers’ allowance. Mrs May wants to significantly widen those restrictions, with plans to expand the sanctions regime to include housing and incapacity benefits understood to be top of the list. Families can get up to £400 a week on housing benefit and it is one of the most expensive benefits payments handed out by the government every year. It is hoped the changes could both help the government bring down the welfare bill and increase society’s defences against home-grown terrorism. It is understood the Home Secretary also hopes to make doctors and other public servants a duty bound to direct migrants who cannot speak English to language courses. One Home Office source said Mrs May wanted to put “rocket boosters” under the current system of punishments for people living in Britain that do not speak English.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11492116/Migrants-who-wont-learn-English-to-be-stripped-of-housing-benefits-under-Tories.html

Good. It's about time!
I am hoping that the amount of people conning the country out of child benefits (sending the money back to their country) will also stop abruptly.