2010 Jun 17: Children abroad used in welfare fraud

Last year, Copenhagen municipality found 380 cases where parents continued to receive child benefit and additional housing benefit although their children no longer resided in Denmark. | Foto: Sten Jørgensen © DR

Kilde: B.T.

17. jun. 2010 10.51 | English

Children living abroad – some of them undergoing so-called re-education – are widely used in welfare fraud, writes daily newspaper BT.

Last year, a Copenhagen municipality control group working on a large welfare fraud project found 380 cases where parents continued to receive child benefit and additional housing benefit although their children no longer resided in Denmark.

The fraud is discovered when schools report back to the municipality thta children don’t show up for class after the holidays because they are now studying abroad – while the municipality continues to pay out additional benefits for children below the age of 18. Parents no longer have the right to benefits once their child has not resided in Denmark for a period of more than six months.

Copenhagen municipality emphasizes that not all the cases involve children on re-education in their parents’ country of origin. There are also cases of Danish children now attending schools abroad, while the parents cash in on benefits.

Helpline US Department of State

1-866-283-9090 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) The Department of State activated the helpline to ensure the health and safety of its exchange participants. Students have a right to be treated fairly and to report abuse without retaliation or threat of program cancellation. (Dep of State)

Blind trust in exchange organisations

You would not send your child to a house at the end of your street if you knew nothing about the person living there. Yet on the strength of a glossy brochure, the payment in some cases of vast sums of money, and an assumption that someone else has asked the right questions, we send our children thousands of miles across the world to stay with strangers.

The companies, organisations and individuals that abuse this blind trust cannot be allowed to continue to profit from it and we must all take responsibility for the care and safety of our young people. (Chris Gould)