Germany transfers child benefits worth €459 million to foreign countries

By Kristýna Čtvrtlíková
3 Min Read

As Germany’s foreign population grows, so does the transfer of social benefits outside the country., including nearly half a billion in child benefit payments.

In 2021, a record amount of such payments flowed out of the country, with €459 million paid from Germany out to foreign accounts to those entitled to child benefits, according to data from the Federal Employment Agency.

The information was only made public once the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party requested it, according to German newspaper Junge Freiheit.

In 2020, German authorities transferred almost €430 million euros in child benefits abroad. In 2015, only €261 million was sent abroad. Data from previous years is not available.

[pp id=15782]

In March 2022, according to the data, child benefits were paid to 328,985 children abroad. Twelve years ago, the number of children was 95,093. The number of children living abroad who receive child benefits from Germany has risen by around 345 percent since 2010.

Germany’s foreign population has reached record levels, and one out of every eight people is now a foreigner, and the country’s new left-wing government is calling for even more immigration to feed the needs of big business. The country’s kindergartens and housing market are currently stretched to the limits, but taxpayers must continue to foot the enormous bill for integration, including social benefits, education, and healthcare costs, to support the country’s rapidly growing foreign population. Ongoing food and energy inflation has also placed a huge burden on Germany’s poorest citizens.

“In some Eastern European countries, child benefits for two children already equals a monthly salary. The German taxpayer, who can hardly pay his rent in his home country due to inflation, no longer understands it,” criticizes AfD politician Renate Springer in an interview with the news outlet.

[pp id=34614]

“That’s why we, as the AfD parliamentary group, are calling on the federal government to reduce child benefits and the planned child bonus on local living costs,” the politician added.

Benefits such as the 2020 child bonus (€300 per child), the 2021 child bonus (€150 per child), and the 2022 child bonus (€100 per child) are also provided abroad based on the existing EU Regulation No. 883/2004.

For the 2020 child bonus alone, the federal government assumed that €90 million would flow abroad. In Germany, 18.2 percent of all those entitled to child benefits are now foreign nationals, and 20.5 percent of all children who receive a child benefit do not have a German passport. Around 2 percent of all children for whom German authorities make payments do not live in Germany.

Share This Article