Austria halves the family benefits of the Hungarians working there

The Austrian government is planning to reform the family benefits system of the country. As a result, they will pay less after more than 100 thousand children. Victims of the new regulation will be mostly the non-Austrian EU workers, among them tens of thousands of Hungarians.

Saving money

In fact, family benefits are uniform in the country at present: each child receives 121 EUR between the ages of 3 and 9. This sum contains not only the family allowance but also other items. In contrast, a Hungarian kid receives only approximately 12,200 HUF (EUR 38) from the state – reported index.hu.

According to the data, the Austrian state budget

pays family benefits for 38,700 Hungarian children 

which is the highest number in the region. The Hungarians are followed by the Slovaks with 27 thousand, then Romanians and Poles with 14 and 15 thousand. Altogether, Austria pays family benefits for 125 thousand children whose parents work in the country. The overall sum of this is 15 million EUR.

The Austrian government decided immediately after it took office that they would modify the method with which they calculate family benefits for children not living in the country. The new system will take into consideration whether a child lives in a country where the

cost of living is lower than in Austria or not.

If so, they will receive lower family benefits while if the cost of living is higher than in Austria, they will get higher sums. The parliament accepted the new regulation in spring this year.