£42M child benefit sent abroad

CHILD benefit worth £42million is being sent abroad each year – while British families are being squeezed by the cash crisis, we can reveal today. Most of the cash goes to eastern Europe, with Poland top of the list. Every month more than ­£2million is sent to Polish children, who already enjoy a higher quality of life than those living here. Of the £42million sent abroad, £30million goes to youngsters in eastern Europe. Payments are usually far more generous than any government benefits in those countries. British benefits for Polish children are 515 per cent higher than local workers could claim on their own welfare system – which could explain the huge surge in claims here in recent years. While the Warsaw government pays £3.30 per week per child, Polish claimants here get £20.30 for one child, a difference of £17 per week.The British are paid benefit for every ­other child is £14.75 per week, so a Polish family with three children can claim more than £200 per month. The Government is now being urged to reduce the payments dramatically as the squeezed middle classes here prepare for having their child benefit removed. Hundreds of ­thousands of British families will lose all their child benefits from April 2013 when the Government will stop all payments if any householder earns enough to be taxed at 40 per cent. Some hard-pressed families face ­losing £200 a month.However, this ruling is unlikely to affect most of the Europeans and ­foreigners working in Britain and ­claiming child benefit for loved ones in their native countries because their earnings ­generally fall below the 40 per cent tax threshold. As more eastern Europeans settle in Britain, the cost of paying child benefit to their families back home is expected to rise to a total of £45million per year by 2015. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “Why should British taxpayers pay for people to have a higher standard of living in other countries than people in this country? The system is ­simply unfair and needs to be changed. “When the Prime Minister says we are all in this together I don’t think he meant ­people from ­Walsall to Warsaw. “People are getting fed up with all these millions pouring abroad, ­especially when so many more British people are being squeezed.” The Sunday Express investigation into the escalating costs of child benefit for foreign workers’ families has ­galvanised Tory MPs who see it as a key issue for the party conference in ­Manchester this week. As David Cameron arrived yesterday, senior Government figures were ­planning a revolt against plans by the European Commission to make benefit tourism even easier. That could see Britain hit with an extra £2.5billion in welfare payments, a move which threatens to derail our ­economic recovery. Employment Minister Chris Grayling and the equally Euro ­sceptic Work and ­Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith are preparing for a major battle in ­Brussels to stop the European bureaucrats from grabbing yet more power from the British ­Parliament. Last night Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, said: “This seems to be yet another case of benefit tourism with thousands of people getting generous benefits which they wouldn’t get in their own countries. “It seems incredible that our country is once again financing this situation,” he added. Philip Hollobone, Tory MP for Kettering, added: “There will be widespread outrage and incredulity that so much money is being gifted to EU migrants in child benefit when their children aren’t even living in the UK. “It just goes to show the absurdity of EU rules that can waste British tax­payers’ money in this way and will strengthen the case for the UK leaving the EU ­altogether.” A spokesman for HM Revenue & Customs said: “Child benefit payments are in line with EU rules which have been in force for more than 30 years. “We do not pay child benefit for children living in another EU member state until we are sure the claim is legitimate.” The spokesman added that most of the ­payments are made directly into bank accounts in ­foreign countries.