North Rhine-Westphalia is stepping up its fight against the organized abuse of social benefits, with Minister Herbert Reul presenting a concept tested for the first time in Krefeld together with the Director of the State Criminal Police Office, Frank Hoever, the Head of the "Organized Crime" Department at the LKA, Thomas Jungbluth, the Lord Mayor of Krefeld, Frank Meyer, the Krefeld Police President Rainer Furth and the Head of the NRW-West Family Benefits Office, Sören Haack. "The times in which unscrupulous criminals were able to exploit the naivety and good faith of the German welfare state are finally over," said Reul.
The program is the second success of the "Task Force NRW" set up a year ago in the LKA, in which the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior jointly conduct financial investigations, after the strike against the so-called "Hawala Banking". It is directed against a group of perpetrators who lure families to Germany, mainly from south-eastern Europe, apply for social benefits such as child benefit for them and let them live in houses that are sometimes in a state of disrepair. The social benefits are withheld in whole or in part by the perpetrators, the parents are placed in illegal employment while the children go begging or stealing. However, when the families return to their home countries, the social benefits are still paid and collected by the perpetrators. "The dreams and hardship of the poorest of the poor in Europe are being exploited. That is the perfidious, deeply despicable thing about this scam," says Reul.
The State Office of Criminal Investigation - together with security partners - has developed a concept to systematically identify cases of benefit abuse and combat criminal structures," said LKA Director Frank Hoever.
"The family benefits offices in North Rhine-Westphalia have been involved for a long time as partners of affected local authorities in the prosecution of unlawful benefit claims in North Rhine-Westphalia. The current action in Krefeld has shown that effective action can be taken against organized structures involved in the abuse of benefits based on the experience of all the authorities involved and cooperation with the State Criminal Police Office," said Sören Haack.
"We are delighted to be the first municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia to take joint and targeted action with the state authorities against organized social abuse and thus make it clear that there is no room for such machinations in Krefeld. This is also in line with the municipal policy of recent years. We would like to thank the police, the State Office of Criminal Investigation and all the authorities involved for their excellent and successful cooperation. We hope that we can continue to work on this basis in the future in order to achieve sustainable results," said Lord Mayor Frank Meyer.
The core of the concept is inter-agency cooperation. First, the data from various offices is compared with that of the family benefits office. In cases of suspicion, the cities investigate together with the support of the police. As a result, the payment is stopped or further investigations are carried out which, over time, uncover a criminal network. During the "stress test" of the program in Krefeld in May, the authorities discovered a mass fraud in the relationship of child benefit. The damage caused here alone was in the hundreds of thousands.
"With our "inner city presence concept", we laid the foundation three years ago to shed light on problematic social developments and consistently punish violations. That's why it was possible to implement this new instrument for investigating criminal social abuse quickly and effectively together with the city, especially in Krefeld," said Police Commissioner Rainer Furth.
"In addition to the financial damage caused to German taxpayers, these crimes also trigger xenophobia and hatred, and the conditions in which these people have to live here bring entire districts into disrepute. And the citizens simply feel it is unfair when the welfare state, which they pay for with their work, is plundered by criminals," said Minister Herbert Reul.