"The think-tank Open Europe today proposed that EU migrants’ eligibility for in-work benefits and out-of-work benefits be restricted for the first three years. Are my right hon. Friend’s EU counterparts in northern Europe sympathetic to such views?..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"18. What steps he is taking to introduce stricter criteria on eligibility benefit for applications from foreign workers...." David Ruffley - View Speech
"I am grateful for that reply. I congratulate the Secretary of State on the tougher habitual residence test and the new minimum earnings guarantee. Has he received support from European partners for his tougher approach to curb benefit tourism, and are they taking further steps to move the approach forward?..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"The Chancellor of the Exchequer is to be congratulated on an intellectually bold and intellectually coherent Budget that will do much to bolster the growing confidence in the British economy. We are already seeing a recovery that is not, contrary to ill-informed observers, a credit-fuelled recovery. The growth we are …..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"The Secretary of State has the wholehearted support of those on the Government Benches because his reforms are the most beneficial reforms to the welfare system since its inception. The Labour party in government, across the whole of their Departments in 13 years, blew £25 billion on failed IT systems. …..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"The European Commission said this morning that more than 600,000 EU migrants live in this country without working. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we could cap the benefits paid to those individuals by introducing a more stringent residence requirement, and by insisting that they have a longer social …..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"Benefit tourism can be deterred if greater conditionality is introduced into the UK benefit system. Will the Secretary of State tell us whether or not our European partners will allow us to do that?..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"I welcome the Secretary of State’s toughening up. I certainly trust him to fight in a tough and effective way in Brussels, but does he understand that many of our constituents find it grotesquely offensive that Brussels officials are telling this Parliament who it can and cannot pay benefits to? …..." David Ruffley - View Speech
"The Minister will be aware of the 1996 personal responsibility Act, passed by President Clinton, which limited an individual’s entitlement to out-of-work benefits to a period of five years over their lifetime, and which, according to American research, cut the welfare roll by 60%. Will he follow that model?..." David Ruffley - View Speech