vierablu
14.07.06, 14:21
Wiesci z Irlandii:
www.breakingnews.ie/2006/05/21/story259738.html
The Government is planning a crackdown on child benefit payments to ensure
that EU migrant workers do not abuse their entitlements.
The cost of paying child benefits to migrant workers, including the new
€1,000 supplement for children under six, is estimated to rise to around
€100m next year.
Minister for Social Affairs Seamus Brennan said new controls would be
introduced to ensure that the payments went only to those who were entitled
to them.
“We need migrant workers here because they’re good for the country, they’re
contributing enormously to the economy and under EU law, they’re entitled to
child benefit here to get support for their families back home,” he said.
“But because there’s so much movement of migrant workers in and out of the
country, there’s a need to keep greater tabs on the situation.”
The new controls will be phased in by the end of this year and will include
random house visits and employment checks by social welfare inspectors. There
will also be cross-checking of records with the Revenue Commissioners to see
if workers are legitimately employed and paying taxes and PRSI.
The Government sees the controls as necessary given the huge disparities
between Irish child benefit payments and other countries, particularly in the
10 new EU member states. The parent of a child here is paid around €150 a
month in child benefits, but in Latvia, Poland and Lithuania, the equivalent
payments are €9, €11 and €36 respectively.
Under EU law employees from any member state can claim child benefit in the
country they are working in, even if their children are living in their home
country, and Irish emigrants have used the measure in the past.
But Fine Gael claimed that the Government failed to take account of the
200,000 EU migrant workers living here when introducing its new childcare
supplement in the last Budget. It estimated that the combined cost of the
paying the child supplement and child benefits to the workers could be as
much as €150m.
Since the party raised the issue last March, the number of child benefit
applications from EU migrant workers has increased from 80 a week to 350 a
week.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs estimates that paying the
childcare supplement to EU migrant workers on behalf of children living here
or abroad will cost between €1m and €4m this year, while the cost of child
benefit is likely to be around €20m.
However, it believes that the cost could rise to up to €100m next year if the
present level of applications continues. The number of migrant workers
claiming child benefits may rise from around 15,000 now to 30,000 next year.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs pays around €2bn each year in
child benefits to one million children and has an overall budget of €14bn.
