UK Prime Minister David Cameron is set to defy European rules by announcing a tough new set of obstacles for immigrants as Britain's Romanian and Bulgarian communities rapidly grow, local media reported.

People wishing to enter Britain will have to prove they have lived here for a year, up from three months, before they can receive benefits in one of the proposals expected to be unveiled.

Another policy would remove child benefits from the dependent children of migrant workers, sources claim.

The prime minister is said to consider the move as he faces mounting pressure from Britons, who want the UK government to extend restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian migrants.

On 1 January 2014, Bulgarians and Romanians will be able to work anywhere in the European Union as the last of their membership restrictions are lifted.

Last week UKIP leader Nigel Farage has slammed as “utterly pathetic” the government's claim that it is not legally possible to block east European migrants working in Britain from the New Year.

“It is utterly pathetic that Britain’s Immigration Minister has such little control over who can and can’t enter the UK,“ Farage fumed.

“Mark Harper must frankly be embarrassed at the impotence of his own role in government. As he himself points out, under EU Treaty obligations Britain can’t remain in the EU and say no to open borders with Romania and Bulgaria next year.

“That isn’t what the British public want to hear and it isn’t good enough.”

The condemnation came in response to a statemnt by UK Immigration Minister Mark Harper, who said there will be no mass migration of Bulgarians and Romanians, coming to the UK for work in the new year when labour market restrictions are lifted.

In the first official assessment of the likely flow of Romanians and Bulgarians to Britain when the curbs are removed on 1 January, the minister, Mark Harper, said the situation this time would not replicate the mass arrival of Poles to the UK 10 years ago.

“There is a big difference with 2004 when we were the only major country not to have transitional controls and all the other big countries did.

“Anybody who wanted to work here legally came to the UK,” he told a Home Office press briefing:

He suggested that Bulgarians and Romanians were more likely to go to Germany, Italy and Spain than Britain.

Harper also criticized Tory rightwingers who have been demanding that the seven-year "transitional controls" on Romanians and Bulgarians be extended after January.

"It is simply not legally possible."

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