The CDU in North Rhine‑Westphalia (NRW) plans to curb the abuse of social benefits by criminal gangs. In a submission for the federal party conference in Stuttgart in February-reported by Bild am Sonntag-the state association calls for drastic measures against misuse of EU freedom of movement.
A key focus is reforming the payment of child benefit to overseas recipients. “Child‑benefit fraud has increasingly become a trick used by criminal networks” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann to Bild am Sonntag. “It is only consistent to adjust the benefit to the cost of living when it is transferred abroad, for instance to Romania or Bulgaria”. Linnemann added that the current payments to those countries are “completely disproportionate” because of lower living costs there.
The Union also wants to tackle exploitation through so‑called “scrap properties”. The proposal would allow police and fire services to report uninhabitable dwellings directly to job centers, thereby stopping payments. The aim is to prevent criminal networks from profiting from the forced forwarding of social benefits. To streamline investigations, the CDU is demanding a fraud‑central registry that links reporting registers, family funds, and social offices.
If caught, offenders would face harsher penalties, including an easier expulsion of EU nationals and the possibility of repeated entry bans. NRW General Secretary Paul Ziemiak told Bild am Sonntag, “Social‑benefit fraud erodes trust in our democracy and undermines the state’s ability to act. It must be confronted with the full force of the rule of law”.