In 2024, Germany’s Federal Employment Agency (BA) identified around 140,000 potential cases of child benefits fraud, with over 100,000 of these cases leading to tax investigations.
Christian Weinerth, a spokesperson for BA, confirmed the figures to BILD, revealing that a significant portion of these cases involved fraud.
Approximately 8,000 of the suspected cases were linked to organized abuse of social benefits, prompting more than 1,500 investigations. However, BA was unable to provide an exact estimate of the financial damage caused by these fraudulent activities.
For the year, the Federal Employment Agency recorded losses of approximately 62 million euros. The “family fund” division, responsible for child benefit payments, also uncovered over 321 million euros in payments that are now subject to repayment under income tax law, while more than 259 million euros were reimbursed.
