£31MILLION in benefits paid to oversees families last year
OVER £600,000 in child benefits is being paid to children living overseas every week, according to new figures.
Some 20,400 child benefit claims were made for 34,268 children with more than 60 per cent of those living in Poland.
In total £31million was paid to foreign families last year, according to the statistics.
The David Cameron has said he will flag the issue after the next election during renegotiations with the European Union election before holding an in-out referendum in 2017.
Under the current rules, it seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change
Tens of thousands of immigrants are taking advantages of the laws set down by the EU, which means they can claim child benefits and send them home to their family.
The problem is getting worse, and the Government has said it wants to negotiate with other EU countries to stop child benefit being paid to foreign families.
Earlier this year Mr Cameron said the EU rules were not fair. He said: “If you travel from another European country into Britain, you can then claim child benefit and other benefits for your family back at home even though actually they’re not living in the UK and going to UK schools and all the rest of it.
“Under the current rules, it seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change that.
“I haven’t met anybody who thinks this is sensible … so that is again a big change.”
EU rules allow child benefit to be claimed if the parents have paid national insurance.
Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands allow child benefit to be received by children who live abroad. Previous figures have shown Poland has the largest number of children receiving benefits claimed in Britain.
Child benefit in Britain is worth £81.20 a month for the first child and £53.60 for further children.
The figure is roughly four times the amount received in Poland.
Labour said the figures showed the Coalition “seems to have given up any effort to end the scandal of millions of pounds of child benefit being sent abroad every year”.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The Prime Minister should order his ministers to work with governments across the EU to bear down on this abuse of our benefits.”
