Hundreds receive Icelandic benefits without ever working there

Documents obtained by Morgunblaðið and reported by mbl.is show that hundreds of foreign nationals have received municipal subsistence support for years without working in Iceland.

The support is intended as an emergency measure for people who cannot earn income by other means. Many of those receiving it later move onto benefits from Iceland’s Social Insurance Administration, including sickness or rehabilitation pensions and disability benefits, without having worked in the Icelandic labour market. Those benefits are considerably higher than municipal subsistence support.

Several such cases are detailed in Friday’s newspaper, while the total number of cases known to Morgunblaðið runs into the hundreds.

Among the examples are three women from Eastern Europe, two of whom were believed to be mother and daughter. They lived together in Iceland for a period. All three initially received municipal subsistence support before moving onto benefits from the Social Insurance Administration.

One of the women was under 18 when she arrived in Iceland and followed the same path after turning 18. Together, the three women have received more than 60 million Icelandic krónur from public funds without ever working in Iceland. That figure does not include tax-free income such as child benefits.