To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of migrants residing in the UK who claim benefits on behalf of children living abroad, broken down by country of residence of the child.

The main purpose of child benefit and the child tax credit is to support families in the UK. Consequently, the rules for these benefits generally do not provide for them to be paid in respect of children who live abroad.

Nevertheless, both child benefit and the child tax credit are family benefits under EC Regulation 883/2004. This regulation protects the social security rights of nationals of all member states of the European economic area (EEA), including the UK, and Switzerland when they exercise their rights of free movement under EU law.

Around 7.5 million families are currently claiming child benefit for around 13 million children and approximately 5.2 million families are receiving the child tax credit for almost 9.3 million children. Of that total, at 31 December 2012, there were 24,082 ongoing child benefit awards under EC Regulation 883/2004 in respect of 40,171 children living in another member state and 4,011 ongoing child tax credit awards under the regulation in respect of 6,838 children living in another member state.

The breakdown by member state is as follows: