The Sun: Migrants' kids benefit abroad

By MICHAEL LEA

MIGRANTS from the new EU countries are claiming at least £250,000 A WEEK in UK child benefit — even though their kids still live abroad.

Around 14,000 workers, mainly from Eastern Europe, are legitimately receiving the handouts, official figures reveal.

And there is NO requirement for them to send the money home to their families.

Child benefit — designed to help out parents with food and clothing bills — is worth £18.10 a week for the eldest child and £12.10 for each other child

Tories last night calculated that if each migrant claims for just one child the annual bill to UK taxpayers would reach £13million — or around £250,000 a week.

But the true cost is likely to be far higher depending on how many children each claimant has. The findings come after separate figures showed that 200,000 more British children are living in poverty than a year ago.

Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary Philip Hammond, who uncovered the figures, said: “Child benefit is a vital weapon in the fight against child poverty. So why is Gordon Brown sending thousands of pounds every week to children who don’t live here and who may never have visited the UK?”

In total, 68,000 immigrants from the eight countries which joined the EU in 2004 are receiving child benefit.

Of those, 14,000 are being paid for children not in the UK. Benefit rules allow migrants working in the UK to claim child tax credit and child benefit in respect of children living abroad.

But the Government refuses to give information on numbers claiming child tax credit.

The figures will embarrass ministers, who had claimed migrants were likely to be young men with no interest in handouts.

Sir Andrew Green, of think tank Migrationwatch, said a Pole claiming for three children would earn more in UK benefits than the minimum wage in his homeland. He said: “It is ridiculous that the taxpayer should finance child benefit for children that have never set foot in this country.”

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This makes a mockery of our welfare system.”

On Saturday we told how a newspaper for Poles in Britain bragged how easy it is to claim benefits here.