More than one million unemployed east European migrants are being urged to claim generous UK benefits after returning home.

Poles and others who have worked in Britain are entitled to claim dole payouts for up to three months. And it will be well worth their while – UK unemployment benefits are worth more than the average wage in Eastern Europe.

The scam is perfectly legal under EU legislation. Polish job centres in Britain are even running master classes to help returning migrants to claim as much as possible from the welfare system.

Polish Employment Office vice-director Renata Cygan said yesterday: “Why should we pay? We work on the assumption that if someone worked abroad they should claim benefits there.

“That’s why we are organising information meetings about how to seek benefits abroad.” Adam Panek, director of the Employment Office in Rzeszow, said: “It was once rare, but now there’s not a week goes by when we don’t get people applying, especially over the past two months.

“People say that in the UK or Ireland there’s no point looking for work anymore. Either their contracts are finished or it just doesn’t make financial sense.”

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “A lot of people in Britain will be shocked to learn that benefits paid out of the British welfare state are funding people to live the high life in Poland.

“But it’s hard to blame the Polish job centres for seeing an opportunity to get as much as possible out of the soft-touch British system.”

Thousands of returning migrants are refusing to take up vacancies until their £700-a-month British benefits run out. The state handout is almost six times the Polish dole payment of £121 a month.