Foreign babies cost £350m

January 30, 2008

| Submit Comments | Comments (23) | Previous | Next

THE cost of providing maternity services for foreign-born mothers has risen to more than £350m a year.

Record levels of immigration have pushed up the cost by £200m in the past 10 years, say analysts.

And critics say the Department of Health has been `caught by surprise' by the rising birth rate, with some maternity wards forced to close their doors to expectant mothers.

While the number of babies born to British mothers has fallen by 44,000 a year since the mid-nineties, the figure for babies born to foreign mothers has risen by 64,000, pushing the overall birthrate to its highest level for 26 years, according to reports.

A decade ago one baby in eight (12.8 per cent) was delivered to a foreign-born mother but figures from the Office of National Statistics show that in 2006 there were 154,000 births to foreign-born women, making up about one in five - or 21.9 per cent - of births in Britain.

Spending on maternity services has risen from £1bn a year to £1.6bn since Labour came to power but Professor Philip Steer, editor of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said: "The Department of Health has been taken by surprise.

"The demographic change, the sheer numbers, has in some areas increased very substantially without there being any forward planning really to allow for that."

A Department of Health spokesman said funding for maternity services will increase over the next three years to reach an extra £122m annually.

| Submit Comments | Comments (23) | Previous | Next

Showing comments 1 to 23 and replies | View All

City78, Failsworth (30/01/2008 at 11:54)

Well done Labour on opening the flood gates. The country is doomed, congratulations to everyone who voted them in.

Mark, South Manchester (30/01/2008 at 12:19)

Seems money well spent to me. Rather on the young than the old!
And what about the money the NHS has saved by importing foreign trained personnel??

ace, manchester (30/01/2008 at 12:26)

this subject will be highly censored by this newspaper incase any of your stories upset any foreign mothers ?

David,North M/C (30/01/2008 at 12:49)

Whenever I post an opinion on a subject like this it doesnt usually get printed,so musch for freedom of speech on this site.

gladys rowbotham, Manchester (30/01/2008 at 13:00)

You usually don't even get the chance to comment on a story like this!

So just be grateful!

The Bobelesque (30/01/2008 at 13:12)

city78: well done on getting your post through the politically correct brigade at the MEN.

You are right of course, we can all say goodbye forever to the England we knew.

It's my grand kids I feel sorry for.

Blip, Manchester (30/01/2008 at 13:50)

Mark, South Manchester, just wait until you get a bit older and need some care, and have to use your savings and sell your house in order to continue your life. Let's see if you think it's "money well spent then". You evidently possess as much foresight as this clueless Govt.

The Bobelesque (30/01/2008 at 14:13)

It's this sort of expenditure that means that every woman born after 1955 now has to work for another 5 years before they get their pension. In simple terms (for the simple minded) that equates £22000.

Sorry girls, if you were planning on chucking work in about 2017, think again, we can't afford for you to. Get another 5 years in.

I wonder how many of our population realise just how immigration is going to impact on their lives in the future. Thanks Tony, Gordon etc.

Ms D, Manchester (30/01/2008 at 14:18)

Is it right that certain services be made readily available to people from overseas when councils are now increasingly refusing to care for the elderly ? Perhaps it's time for anyone who is from overseas pay for their treatment, whatever that may be. We have to look after our own first however hard that might be for some people to accept.

mylifeinthemafia (30/01/2008 at 14:20)

No point posting as it wont get printed anyway.

Secret Squirrel (30/01/2008 at 14:35)

And these babies will grow up and get jobs and pay tax and NI contributions to supply pension payments and NHS provisions and winter fuel payments to moaning old miseries like you'll all be. Or are you all planning to keep working forever?

Timberman, MANCHESTER (30/01/2008 at 14:48)

Not worth making a comment, I've had one five liner cut to one line today. TTFN

Mark Spencer, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. (30/01/2008 at 14:52)

Secret Squirrel done write: "And these babies will grow up and get jobs and pay tax and NI contributions to supply pension payments and NHS provisions and winter fuel payments to moaning old miseries like you'll all be. Or are you all planning to keep working forever?"

The fact is that children cost the taxpayer more to run than us old wrinklies - and for longer if Gordon Brown puts the school leaving age up to 18 with £30 a week extra going to reluctant attenders.

The Bobelesque (30/01/2008 at 15:13)

Secret Squirrel says "And these babies will grow up and get jobs and pay tax and NI contributions to supply pension payments and NHS provisions and winter fuel payments to moaning old miseries like you'll all be."

Listen to the DWp adverts on the radio. There is a huge problem with illegal workers - they don't pay tax or NI.

You also said "Or are you all planning to keep working forever?" On the basis that women of 30 odd who not long ago were looking forward to retiring at 60 now have to work until they are 67 - the answer is YES. The government would love us all to work for ever and we probably will have to because the pension is rubbish and being paid later and later.

Your internationalism is applaudable but misguided. UImmigration is costing you personally - fact.

Chris, Irlam (30/01/2008 at 15:25)

Amazed that comments are allowed on this story, never mind some not-so-PC ones actually making it through!

Once all UK-born old folk are looked after THEN we can fritter money away on mothers from overseas having children here.

Molly 4 (30/01/2008 at 15:26)

If we took a vote from all of the UK regarding immigration, foreign workers, etc and not allwoing entry guess what the outcome would be? NO ENTRY and ID cards for all foreign workers with no claim to benefits, how long do you think they would stay.

oracle, manchester (30/01/2008 at 16:10)

Why not charge the patients for interpreters to recoup some of the cost. Also charge for ambulances as it would stop a lot of peopke using it as a taxi service.

roy dog dutton, fortalleza, brazil (30/01/2008 at 16:19)

The thing what surprises me, is that people are surprised, I saw this coming a long time ago, hence my address

ExManc (30/01/2008 at 23:07)

Foreign babies cost £350m? No they're not, they're British!

Bill, Kiriat Motzkin (31/01/2008 at 09:07)

The article doesn't state whether he immigrants are from the EU or 'proper' foreigners (those that need to be given leave to be in the UK).
Also, are they of a religion that tries to out-birth the others?

Mark Spencer, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. (31/01/2008 at 09:53)

Quote by roy dog dutton, fortalleza, brazil:
"The thing what surprises me, is that people are surprised, I saw this coming a long time ago, hence my address"

Ronnie Briggs had you beat by years!

Mike (31/01/2008 at 10:58)

Soon as they land here, first thing they do is get pregnant, have baby, and hey presto they have a 'british baby' benefits the lot

S Tockport, near the window (01/02/2008 at 13:21)

its been on the cards since AD43 when those damn Romans came over here and spoiled it for the natural born Celts. Why didn't things stay just how they were? Progress, Change maybe - it just seems to happen!

()

Report

Health