Only 4% of migrant workers get child payment

ONLY 4% of EU migrant workers who applied for a social welfare payment for their children living outside Ireland are receiving the annual €1,000 allowance.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs has confirmed the vast majority of 15,000 applicants for the childcare supplement are still waiting to have their claims processed.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday that 80% of all applications came for Polish citizens.

A controversy was sparked last year when the Government was forced to admit that the children of EU migrant workers were entitled to the €1,000 a year childcare supplement, even if they were still living in their parent’s country of origin.

The low number of successful applicants to date indicates the Government will only have to pay out a fraction of official estimates that the scheme could add an extra €90m a year to its social welfare budget.

Department secretary general John Hynes said there were delays in handling the claims for childcare allowance from migrant workers, even though the vast majority of other types of child benefit claims were processed within a week.

Mr Hynes told the committee that the need to check the details of an applicant with authorities in their native country was responsible for the backlog. He also revealed a total of 143,000 new Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers were issued to people from the ten EU accession states in 2006. An average of 11,500 have been issued each months in 2007.

Labour finance spokesperson Joan Burton expressed concern that the increasing use of electronic funds transfer to make social welfare payments increased the risk of fraud.

Mr Hynes said checks on non-nationals were more to difficult to conduct, but said the issue was not a major problem for his department.

He also explained the level of childcare payments was reduced if claimants were also receiving similar benefits from the authorities in their country of origin.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, told the committee that he shared the concern voices about the risks associated with the electronic transfer of social welfare payments.

Mr Purcell said it highlighted the need for extra controls to ensure immigrant workers were not still making claims after they had relocated out of Ireland.