A system against abuse and exploitation - the working group on benefit abuse

"Offenbach has made a name for itself throughout Germany with its 'benefit abuse' working group. It acts above and beyond the authorities and uncovers not only usury, but also construction defects and unlawful social benefits. While other cities are increasingly confronted with entire streets being rented out by the mattress, Offenbach has been able to prevent the worst by acting quickly," says city councillor Paul-Gerhard Weiß.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, the head of the public order department draws a positive conclusion: "We have curbed the abuse of benefits in many cases and uncovered usurious rents of up to 150 percent. Citizens also benefit from our consistent efforts."

The checks are also comprehensively documented for other authorities and trigger further checks, for example by tax investigators, the criminal investigation department and the family benefits office. Sometimes people are found who are wanted wanted. Residence permits are regularly missing or there are indications of marriages of convenience. After the check, the working group on benefit abuse compares the situation on site with the register of residents in the Citizens' Office.

Citizens' tips often lead to checks by the working group, but sometimes also constantly overfilled garbage cans or too many doorbell signs for the available living space.

In 2006, the City of Offenbach's Public Order Office and its Municipal Prevention Office took over the leadership of the working group under the direction of Frank Weber, then Head of Department, now Head of the Public Order Office. In 2022, Daniel Krüger took over the leadership of the group and has been organizing the meetings ever since.

When the working group was founded, the main focus was on illegal car dealerships, dubious property sales, money laundering transactions, marriages of convenience, fictitious children and unclear family relationships, which were used to fraudulently obtain social benefits and residence permits and evade taxes. "Offenbach played a pioneering role throughout Germany thanks to the excellent cooperation between various offices and authorities and served as a blueprint for numerous other cities and districts," emphasizes Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of Public Order. The German Association of Cities became aware of the working group and invited Weiß, together with the head of the Public Order Office, to present the work of the working group to representatives of major German cities such as Munich, Hamburg and Gelsenkirchen in Berlin.

In 2008, the work of the SOKRATES working group changed significantly, leading to it being renamed the Abuse of Benefits Working Group. "At the time, we arrived at a building with piles of waste in the courtyard. The bins provided were nowhere near enough to dispose of the waste. Investigations by the waste detectives from the public order office quickly revealed that the building was completely overcrowded - in some cases with three people per room," recalls Krüger.

More and more apartments were filled with far too many tenants - almost all of them occupied by people from south-eastern Europe, who had previously been granted limited freedom of movement as a result of the EU's eastward expansion and thus came to Offenbach in search of work. As they needed cheap housing, they were easy victims for unscrupulous landlords. The strong influx was also reflected in the number of business registrations at the public order office. From 2009 to 2013, there were around 1,500 registrations per year - often pseudo-self-employment in order to obtain freedom of movement under EU law.

Since the end of the 2000s, 143 residential buildings have been inspected by the large contingent, in addition to numerous smaller properties or individual apartments that were inspected by a small team from the AG. Four houses had to be completely evacuated. "The successes were made possible by the high level of commitment of the representatives of the various authorities and the willingness to work together across authorities," says Frank Weber, Head of the Public Order Office. "If there is a new problem that one authority cannot solve on its own, we look together to see who can make what contribution to remedy the situation. This makes it possible to work together to improve housing conditions, combat the exploitation of people and uncover and stop the unauthorized use of public benefits, be it social benefits at local authority level or child benefit at federal level."

Thanks to its involvement in the working group, MainArbeit has saved around 479,758 euros in unlawful benefits in the form of accommodation costs in the years since 2016, extrapolated to the end of 2024. The difference between the previously actual costs and the recognized reasonable costs is extrapolated for one year.

"It is thanks to the quick reaction and adaptability of the employees represented in the working group that measures were taken at an early stage to prevent the phenomena from spreading across the board, as happened in many other cities. The working group can look back on numerous successes, which are not always obvious or measurable - especially when preventive action has been taken and worse things have been prevented," says Councillor Weiß.