German child benefit payments to families abroad, Digi Mart USA News (Romania): A German commentary, citing an MDR television report, says that large families in Romanian villages are living comfortably on German social benefits despite having little employment. The report, titled “EU-Armutsmigration: Sozialstaat in der Sackgasse?” (“EU Poverty Migration: Welfare State at a Dead End?”), was broadcast on November 4 and is available in the ARD Mediathek.
A Romanian mayor is quoted in the report saying: “In our municipality we have large families, some have 10 or 15 children. They receive child benefit in Germany.” The town certifies monthly for about 30 families that their children are exempt from Romanian child benefit, a requirement for receiving the much higher German child benefit.
City representatives openly acknowledge this practice, and social assistance and housing benefit are added on top.
Reporter Jana Gareis had visited the same locations eight years earlier and now describes new prosperity, including large houses and expensive new cars driven by members of the Roma minority, financed by German taxpayers. The commentary notes that Germany transferred 528 million euros in child benefit abroad last year.
The report uses the example of a family with seven children who, with roughly 700 euros in mini-job earnings, reaches about 4,500 euros per month through child benefit, basic income support and other payments, plus reasonable housing costs. The commentary states that even full-time high earners rarely reach such net income.
A former landlord also reportedly said the family left its earlier apartment neglected with unpaid rent.
The commentary explains that under EU rules, even a few working hours or a mini-job can establish worker status and related social benefit entitlements, a point the German Association of Towns and Municipalities identified as central to the problem. It also notes that the European Court of Justice in 2022 ruled unlawful Austria’s attempt to index family benefits for children living abroad to local living costs.
Germany plans a package of measures, including better coordination between authorities and closer checks on whether the claimed employment actually exists. The commentary also suggests stronger verification of children’s existence and residence, temporary suspension of payments in cases of suspected fraud, and cross-border recovery of unlawfully received benefits.
It describes Sahra Wagenknecht’s demand to end child benefit for children living outside Germany as radical and legally difficult to enforce, since it would also affect foreign workers who pay taxes in Germany while their children live abroad.
