Growing social fraud suspected
Ampel takes action against false paternity
April 30, 2024, 7:39 a.m
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If a man recognizes a foreign child as his, the child receives citizenship and the mother and siblings receive a right of residence, including entitlement to social benefits. This can also be exploited consciously. The authorities assume that abuse is increasing.
The recognition of paternity should be made more difficult in order to combat social fraud. The ARD reports on a corresponding draft law from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior. From 2018 to 2021, the immigration authorities noticed around 1,800 possible false paternities, and abuse was also identified in 290 cases. With the official recognition of paternity for a foreign child, the child receives citizenship. This gives relatives such as the mother and siblings a right of residence and the right to social benefits.
According to a report in the RBB magazine “Kontraste”, for example, a man recognized 24 children, which gave dozens more people a right of residence – including citizen’s benefit, child benefit and child supplements. This case alone is said to have caused annual costs of 1.5 million euros. According to RBB go dThe authorities expect an increasing number of such false paternities.
So far, registry offices have generally accepted the certification of paternity through notaries and youth welfare offices without further examination. According to the draft law, the immigration authorities should intervene in the future. If the mother of the child to be adopted has only a weak right of residence or no right of residence at all, the registry office can only carry out the registration if the consent of the immigration authorities is obtained beforehand, explains the ARD. This can be rejected if abuse is suspected, for example if the mother is about to be deported or has almost no proven relationship with the alleged father or the two cannot communicate.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that false paternity was always to the detriment of the affected children. There is no tolerance for this. “At the same time, we ensure that the biological and social paternity process is not unnecessarily delayed.” According to the report, the federal government wants to agree on a final draft law before the summer break.