Germany to unveil action plan and data centres to curb social benefit fraud

Federal Labour Minister Bärbel Bas and Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that the German government will present an action plan against social‑benefit fraud in July. The plan includes establishing a competence centre at the Federal Employment Agency on 1 July to analyse data patterns across unemployment benefits, basic security and other aid programmes, aiming to identify organised fraud and relieve municipalities.

The competence centre will use cross‑agency data, such as from the pension system, to spot anomalies like simultaneous registrations at the same address or coordinated applications by employees of a single firm. Up to five regional centres are slated to open next year. The initiative coincides with the introduction of a new basic security scheme that replaces the former Bürgergeld, imposing stricter co‑operation duties and tougher sanctions on roughly 5.5 million benefit recipients.