CHILD BENEFIT (3)

One of the good things about the newly reactivated debate about child benefit (and welfare benefits in general) is that more and more facts are being put on the table.

The latest concerns the total amount of money paid out by the state in the form of welfare benefits (child benefit, unemployment benefit, cash help and efterløn) to people from different countries. For Danes, it is on average kr.46.409, or about £5,000, a year. Top of the list are people from Somalia, Lebanon and Irak, who all receive kr.110-120,000. Many of these are refugees or asylum seekers, who do not earn, but live on welfare; you would expect the social cost of these people to be high.

What is interesting is the cost of people from other E.U. countries, and particularly those from the former Eastern Europe. For Poland it is kr.42.108, Romania kr.25.158, and for Ukraine kr.23.175. In other words, the average East European costs the Danish state less in welfare benefits than the average Dane.

Although these figures are averages, and so can mask large differences, the broad trend is clear. East Europeans, on average, come to Denmark to work; as such, the only welfare benefit they can expect to get is child benefit. When taxes are offset against this, the net benefit to Danish society will be positive.

Facts on the table should lead to a better class of debate. However, judging from the reaction to this latest lot, this is not going to happen.

Walter Blotscher