Berlin (dpa) – Last year, more than the previous year, 427.4 million euros in child benefit were transferred abroad.

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance to AfD member Rene Springer, which is available to the German news agency in Berlin, that was 397.9 million in 2019. In 2015 the total was 261.0 million euros, after which it fluctuated.

Child benefit can also be granted for children abroad if the parents or other relatives who are entitled to custody live or work in Germany. There are EU regulations for this, but also agreements with some non-European countries, including Turkey, Serbia and Morocco.

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, child benefit was granted in December for a total of 330,063 children living abroad. This is a sharp increase since 2015, when 158,169 children abroad were still granted child benefit.

Springer, the social policy spokesman for his group, said that in some Eastern European countries the child benefit for two children is equivalent to a month’s wage. “This creates incentives for immigration into our social systems, which are further reinforced by the increase in child benefit. To prevent this, we as the AfD parliamentary group are calling on the federal government to reduce child benefit in relation to the local cost of living. “

There is a similar scheme in Austria. In 2018 it was decided to adjust the payment of child benefit to the cost of living in the child’s country of residence. The European Commission is therefore suing Austria before the European Court of Justice. The rules are discriminatory and therefore violate EU law, said the Brussels authority.

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