44,000 children living abroad get Belgian family allowances

Last year, 44,176 children living abroad earned their parents €69.4 million in family allowances paid by the Belgian authorities, the Sudpresse newspapers report, marking a considerable increase on the 2006 figure of 33,858. The vast majority of these children (42,182) live in EU countries. “They are just normal workers who come from abroad to work here without living here, which gives them the right to family allowances,” says Tania Dekens, general director of the national office for family allowances for employees. Family allowances are also paid from other countries to children living in Belgium, the papers add. The main contributors are Luxembourg (14,441 children), the Netherlands (10,941) and France (2,454), who together pay €107 million per year for children living in Belgium.