MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - The United Kingdom is sending out some 600,000 pounds ($958,020) every week in child benefits to parents living abroad, costing UK taxpayers up to 31million pounds (about $49.5 million) annually, The Telegraph reported Saturday.
According to the results of recent poll cited by the newspaper, an average of 20,400 Child Benefit claims were made last year; covering 34,268 children two thirds of whom lived in Poland.
Apart from Poland, 1,231 families in Ireland receive benefits for 2,505 children, along with 1,215 families in Lithuania, 797 in Latvia and 789 in France.
UK immigrant workers prefer to make claims back home rather than where they live, as the amount claimed compared to the lower cost of living in the foreign countries works in their favor.
For instance, Poland pays out 13.6 pounds ($21.70) a week for children under five, 18.2 pounds ($29) for children aged 5-18 and 19.6 pounds ($31.30) for those aged 18-24 in education – figures brought to light by the Labor party, according to a Daily Mail report published on Saturday.
"It's unfair and it's not affordable. That's why I have raised this important issue with French government ministers this week. If the Tory-led [Conservative party] government continues to fail to act over millions in child benefit being sent abroad each year, a Labor government will," Labor's work and pensions spokesman Rachel Reeves was quoted as saying.
"Rather than admitting defeat the Prime Minister should be ordering his ministers to work with governments across the European Union to bear down on this abuse of our benefits system," she added.
The UK government wants to stop child benefit payments being made to foreign families, but UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the matter would have to wait until after next year's general election.
"Under the current rules, it seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change that. Now I haven't met anybody who thinks this is sensible, so that is again a really big change," Cameron told the BBC in May.
