UK - Child benefit for foreign children living abroad

£24m overseas child benefit bill
news.uk.msn.com...

In total 50,586 children outside the UK are the designated beneficiaries of the entitlements for people working in Britain, Treasury minister Stephen Timms revealed to the Commons.

£33m child benefit paid to foreign children who live abroad
www.dailymail.co.uk...

The UK benefit is so attractive because it is £977 a year for the first child and £652 for young siblings – as opposed to £160 for each child in Poland.

Explore Government Documents:
10 Downing Street - Click on 'Full Record' and visit some of the links if your interested in trying to find further info.
www.lib.umich.edu...

OFFSTATS - Official Statistics on the Web
www.offstats.auckland.ac.nz...

British ex-pats living abroad are also entitled to health care paid for by the NHS, and can still draw UK based benefits and pensions no matter where they live in the EU. I think I'd rather pay towards an impoverished polish kid than keep some leathered old tart in smokes and booze while sunning themselves in Spain.

Besides, there are other monetary wastes that could/should be addressed before whining about a piddly 24 million being sent to one of the poorest countries in Europe.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by quackers]

The point was made in a radio discussion that Polish nationals need only live in this country for 3 months of the year to secure benefit for their children living in Poland. However it was also asserted that this situation can happen in reverse. If so, I'll bet it doesn't happen much. The countries that Brits are commonly economic migrants to are Australia, States, New Zealand, Canada and parts of Europe. I'd be very surprised if any of these countries pay child benefit for British children living in the UK.
It's wrong and I don't care whether it's £3 million or £3.

Note to quackers, this is not the same as Brits picking up benefits from their own system while living abroad.


[edit on 3-11-2009 by unicorn1]

[edit on 3-11-2009 by unicorn1]

reply to post by quackers


I disagree the majority of those "old tarts" paid into the system their entire life. People seem to forget this and I hope when I'm old the system I supported my entie life via taxes does not forget all the money I put into it over the years. Who do you think paid for and built the 1st world living standards we currently enjoy? The generations that became before us did and to cut them loose and not let them enjoy the final years of their life in the comfort they earned through hard work is pure evil.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by Jacob08]

It is not a parallel, but it is how the system is meant to work within the EU. In other words, there are benefits for UK people who chose to live abroad also.

I'd rather pay them child benefit than have the entire family migrate here and have to pay for their health and education also. If they work here, and they have children, they are entitled to those benefits. Their children don't stop being their children just because they got a job in the UK. However, they should only be entitled to these benefits for as long as they are employed in the UK. If they only work here for 3 months then they should only get 3 months worth of benefits, and if they become unemployed for any period of time, their visas should be revoked and they should be sent packing.

reply to post by Jacob08


I never said they were not deserving of those benefits, nor did I suggest that they should not be paid those benefits. It simply shows that we already pay benefits to people who do not live in the UK. If a pole is here working, they are paying into the system, they are paying taxes and national insurance contributions, and they are entitled to benefits just as anyone else who has payed into the system, including old tarts who left the country "for a better life".

[edit on 3-11-2009 by quackers]

reply to post by quackers

Besides, there are other monetary wastes that could/should be addressed before whining about a piddly 24 million being sent to one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Reluctantly I have to agree, the UK seems to be a free for all as to getting every possible penny out of the cash cow.

Unfortunately it would appear that those who are within a certain income bracket that are funding it all and are very often too moral or (I hate to use the word) ignorant in this sense to claw anything back.

It deeply saddens me to see couples (UK citizens) drag their children out of bed in the cold and dark to whisk them off for someone else to raise whilst they go to work for a combined wage that will certainly not keep them out of debt.

There again, in contrast we have the single childless person who because of his/her life choice is discriminated against because he/she does not have a child, and has to fund the chldren being dragged out of bed.

The witch hunt is on for the unemployed 2 million tarred with the same brush as a dysfunctional few parasites. Yet, 2 million jobs have been given to migrants most of whom will happily live 6 in a one bedroom council flat and eat only from the reduced section at Tesco, in order to send their rich pickings back to their families abroad.

The money that is saved by keeping wages down by employing migrants lines the pockets of the few who pay vast sums for accountants to avoid taxation.

This can all only end in tears for the UK natural selection in action, survival of the fittest and the parasite.

What amazes me most about the UK public is their knee jerk response of disgust at their money (which could be the difference between making their next mortgage payment and being homeless), being squandered without their consent.

Yet when the hand of royal blood dips into the citizens pocket without consent to, fund Neverland for the children of the elite, not an eyelid gets batted.

If we are foolish enough to believe, that the children of the house of Windsor, their minions and extended family, truly warrant the money that could buy our daughters a winter coat or our sons a school lunch, what message are we sending our children and anyone who wants a piece of the action?








[edit on 3-11-2009 by moocowman]

i have a lovely hard working polish lass working for me she pays taxes ni etc but her boyfriend however does not have continuous work ,a week here and there does not really contribute anything to her or tax wise etc . he has 2 kids and ex wife in poland and he claims child benefit for them.
£132 every 4 weeks . this does make me angry i am sorry to say.

Originally posted by craic.n.up
i have a lovely hard working polish lass working for me she pays taxes ni etc but her boyfriend however does not have continuous work ,a week here and there does not really contribute anything to her or tax wise etc . he has 2 kids and ex wife in poland and he claims child benefit for them.
£132 every 4 weeks . this does make me angry i am sorry to say.

Perhaps if you and others like you did not employ migrants then we may well not have half of the problems that we have.

If a week here and there for the boyfriend does not contribute to anything, imagine what it's like for a brit born couple trying to get by waiting for an agency to call whenever they feel like it to offer the carrot of a days pay.

If these people weren't given brit jobs the no one would be sending child benefit back to Poland would they ?

There are plenty of British "lovely lasses" my friend pleas don't tell me you couldn't find but one to do whatever your lovely lass does for a fair wage ?

ok moocowman she was already working there when i got the job as her manager i did not employ her and she is a lot more hard working than some of the local people working in the place and the job she does the locals turn their noses up at (housekeeper in hotel) and dont stay in the job, think that its beneath them and thats the truth i am afraid.

Originally posted by craic.n.up
ok moocowman she was already working there when i got the job as her manager i did not employ her and she is a lot more hard working than some of the local people working in the place and the job she does the locals turn their noses up at (housekeeper in hotel) and dont stay in the job, think that its beneath them and thats the truth i am afraid.

LOL I scribbled on a peace of paper earlier HOTEL/ RESTAURANT

Let's be honest abut this, there are thousands of crappy jobs that nobody really wants to do. The reason? primarily because the pay or conditions or both are crap.

Nobody but nobody wants to clean toilets for a living, but, if you git paid the same money as let's say a plumber people would que through the door for the job.


To imply than migrants work harder than indigenous workers is but a temporary illusion. Once migrants are naturalized they then seek the same conditions as the indigenous, who fought for centuries to improve their lot.