3 March 2011 Last updated at 07:32 ET

More Europe migrants to gain access to full UK benefits

The Worker Registration Scheme will be axed at the end of April Migrants from the eight countries which joined the EU in 2004 will be able to claim full benefits in the UK for the first time from May.

Estimates in The Times suggest as many as 100,000 migrants could claim tens of millions of pounds in benefits.

But the Department for Work and Pensions insisted strict rules would remain in place to prevent abuse and stop "benefit tourism".

The long-expected relaxation in the rules is down to European law.

Giving migrants from the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - the so-called A8 countries - entitlement to a range of benefits was a condition of the 2004 accession treaty admitting these countries to the EU.

'Strict rules'

The UK was allowed to apply transition arrangements in the labour market for up to seven years - but those arrangements, which included the Worker Registration Scheme, will be dropped at the end of April.

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No-one can just come into the UK and start claiming our benefitsâ€