Britain spends over £20m a year on child benefit…for children who live in Poland

November 1, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News

Taxpayers in Britain are funding child benefit payments for 51,000 children who aren’t even in this country, the majority are Polish with the claimants working a well known, (To all except recently the Government and Taxpayers) loophole in European law.

Children who have remained behind in their homeland while one or both of their parents lives and works in the UK costs the taxpayer more than £20 million a year. Claimants in some cases receive the full UK rate of benefit, £20 a week for the first child and £13.20 for others. Immigration from Eastern Europe has dropped, yet claims for child support have risen by 20% in the past year, clearly showing that a loophole is being abused.

Polish children make up the majority of the 51,000 supported with child benefit payments from British taxpayers.

The Treasury refused to put a figure on the total cost of supporting children abroad. Even if most of the Polish claimants are not getting the full rate from Britain, the total cost of the payouts to Polish families is estimated at more than £24 million a year.

Ania’s Poland website, helps the Polish settle in Britain the owner of the site, Ania Heasley said: “The typical scenario is that the father comes to the UK and works here, and if he is the main breadwinner or declares himself financially responsible then even if his child lives in Poland he can claim child benefit and will get the full amount,

“It is much much less in Poland, which is why they apply here.

“There was an outcry before about children who have never set foot in Britain getting these benefits and the reaction was that it couldn’t be true, but it is true and thousands of people do it.

“They feel it is their right, they are taking advantage of the rules that are there. They are not doing anything illegal; this is there for the taking.

“Originally people were surprised and said ‘This is great,’ but now there is so much information in Poland about the benefits that they all know about it.

“In Poland the benefits are getting less and less, but the advice when coming over to Britain is that you can add that to your salary. They are so happy about the welfare system.”

If a worker from an EU country pays tax in Britain the UK takes responsibility for paying the full amount of child benefit to children they have left behind unless another parent is working and claiming in the home country. However, even if another country is paying some benefits, Britain must add extra if the child’s native country’s benefit rate is lower than the UK’s.

In a recent ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph about two thirds of voters, 66 per cent, believe that the number of immigrants currently in Britain is too high.