Overview

• Authorities recorded 421 organized benefit‑fraud cases in 2024, and experts warn the true number is higher.
• CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann calls current rules a “krasse Regelungslücke” and urges tighter EU freedom‑of‑movement guardrails with a clearer definition of “employee.”
• Investigators describe schemes in which recruiters, often targeting people from Romania and Bulgaria, arrange registration addresses and minijob contracts, house them in overpriced shared flats, and skim Bürgergeld payouts.
• Labor Minister Bärbel Bas promises concrete proposals in autumn, and the Federal Employment Agency is planning a “Kompetenzzentrum Leistungsmissbrauch” to strengthen data matching across jobcenters, tax offices, family funds, and security agencies.
• Government figures show 47.3% of recipients held non‑German passports in 2023, and 395,870 EU citizens received Bürgergeld in May 2025, with jobcenters reporting increased cases in regions such as the Ruhr area.