Plan targets cross-border benefit cheats

Date: 04/03/1999

By Simon Coss

EU GOVERNMENTS are planning to crack down on social security fraudsters who claim benefits in one country while working in another.

At their meeting next week, social affairs ministers hope to close a loophole in the Union's social security rules which effectively allows employment agencies to provide temporary staff in one EU member state without checking if they are claiming benefits elsewhere.

"We want to deal with the problem of, for example, a Dutch person who is working in Germany and receiving benefits at home," explained a German official.

The planned non-binding resolution on temporary workers has been championed by the German presidency. Bonn argues that a deal is needed to complement the Union's existing rules on cooperation between social security systems - the 1971 social security regulation and the 1996 'posted workers' directive, which covers staff sent from one EU member state to work in another.

There are currently no EU rules obliging employment agencies to provide or even seek information on whether workers on their books are claiming benefit in another member state. National regulations exist in some EU countries, but there is no commonly agreed approach to the issue.

The planned resolution aims to ensure officials in national social security departments regularly provide each other with information on temporary workers and that clear channels of communication are set up.

Council of Ministers officials say the German plan is likely to be accepted without much debate by the EU's 14 other social affairs ministers when they meet next Tuesday (9 March).

But it remains to be seen just how effective it will be.

As the proposed agreement has no legal weight, its success depends on cooperation between member states.