Raul Kalev and Ilona Abdullaeva, who call themselves climate refugees, moved to Morocco with their two teenage daughters three years ago and spend most of the year there.

Likewise three years ago, retired ballet dancer Marika Muiste ended up in Italy with her then kindergarten-aged son and elementary school-aged daughter, but for a much sadder reason.

"Because my husband started developing some very strange health problems that we couldn't find any answers for, and because I saw that my husband's condition was getting worse by the day, I just felt that I had to do something," Muiste recalled. "And our only chance, because my husband's sister lived in Italy – and still lives in Italy – we started looking for ways to get help elsewhere."

Although their reasons for heading abroad differ, both families found themselves faced with the same issue this past spring – Estonia's Social Insurance Board (SKA) revoked their child benefits. Kalev and Abdullaeva were likewise asked to pay back a larger sum.

"Why we're doing this is, I believe, understandable in this sense to every Estonian person – we pay these benefits with taxpayer money," explained Minister of Social Protection Signe Riisalo (Reform). "People who actually live in Estonia, who actually work and pay taxes in Estonia, are funding a benefit that is going to people who don't pay those taxes here and don't even actually live here at all."

Several different family benefits exist in Estonia, including two main ones. One of these is the parental benefit.

"Parental benefits are a replacement income that the state pays to those parents who are at home with a newborn or young, around one year old child, and aren't working and have no income," explained Artur Panov, a counselor on the family benefits team at SKA's Benefits Department.

The other is the child benefit.

"Starting when a child is born, either the father or mother – the parents have to decide for themselves – will start receiving a child benefit," Panov said. "It's €80 a month. This amount will be paid until the child turns 19."

Since increasing the birth rate is a priority, Estonia's benefits are among the most generous and flexible in the world, allowing, for example, for parental leave and benefits to be divided between the father and mother. As is fitting of a digital state, everything generally happens automatically.

"Once the child has been given a name and is registered in the population register, then that information comes to us, and based on that information, both parents are sent an offer in the self-service portal and an email notification," said SKA Development Department director Kristina Pähkel.

"If, for example, there are already more children, say, three, then we pay three child benefits," Panov explained. "Beginning with the third child, the child benefit [goes up to] €100, meaning €160 plus €100, which makes €260. And then we also start paying the large family benefit, which is €450. In total, that comes to €710 a month for three kids – which we pay for 19 years."

In all, SKA pays out €760 million annually in family benefits. According to officials, however, they began to notice that following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced people into remote work and remote learning, more and more benefit recipients weren't residing in Estonia.

According to Panov, the rule is that to receive family benefits from Estonia, the person must also live in Estonia. He added that the parameters for when a family can continue to receive child benefits from Estonia are clear.

"The line is quite clear that if someone doesn't have a permanent residence abroad, for example if they are constantly traveling, and spend a month in Spain, the next month in Turkey, and then they head to Thailand – in total they can do this for up to 183 days a year, meaning half a year," he confirmed.

Various reasons for ending up abroad

Raul Kalev and Ilona Abdullaeva said that they didn't know they had to inform Estonian authorities that Morocco would become their primary country of residence.

"It's somehow the case with these child benefits that none of us submit an application, saying 'I request that the state starts paying me these payments or these benefits or these things,'" said Kalev. "The state has made a decision somewhere that it wants to pay them to its children. At the time, all you know is that the state wants to pay, is paying – it's nice, it's useful. You accept any amount they'll give you, just like most [people do]."

Initially only in Morocco for a short period, Kalev and Abdullaeva decided to move there for a longer period together with their children Melody and Singlill as soon as the borders reopened again following the start the pandemic. The couple themselves needed a reset, but their younger daughter had also been having a hard time adjusting at school, and their older daughter had arthritis.

At the same time, in spring 2021, former Estonian National Ballet soloist and principal dancer Anatoli Arhangelski developed severe complications after getting COVID that doctors in Estonia were unable to diagnose or treat. So, the family sought help in Italy.

"A week after we got here, it turned out that he had this incurable disease – Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) – and was only given six months to live," recalled his wife Marika Muiste.

"I did everything I could to ensure that at least his life would be good enough in the sense that he'd be cared for and in humane conditions," she said, adding that Arhangelski was also put on all kinds of specialized diets and things.

"After six months – where we'd been told that most people worldwide usually die six months later – his condition stabilized," Muiste continued. "Naturally, I was at my husband's side in the hospital 24 hours a day, and at the time, the kids were in Estonia with their grandmothers – because we don't have grandfathers. Their grandmothers and Anatoli's aunt were the ones who took care of the kids. And I visited the kids once a month. It was of course a very difficult time for everyone – for the kids as well as for me – and after the end of that school year, I decided to bring the kids to Italy, so that way our family could be at least somewhat together."

Board now taking closer look at benefits issue

SKA has previously canceled child benefits for around 1,500 children who had moved abroad, but the matter was given increased attention starting at the beginning of this year. 5,000 children ended up flagged for followup review.

"We took all the kids receiving family benefits and verified whether we also had their education info," said Pähkel, noting that they turned out to be missing enrollment or other education info for 5,000 children in all.

"And it snowballed from there," Riisalo explained. "They started looking more closely at whether people receiving child benefits, family benefits and parental benefits are indeed registered as residents of Estonia; have an address and residence here, spend at least 182 days in Estonia; whether they work here and pay their taxes here."

This ended up culminating in the cancellation over the first eight months of 2024 of child benefits for 1,100 children living abroad. Given the sensitive nature of this data, SKA could not provide detailed descriptions, but among these families were the owners of a hotel chain in Southern Europe that long since hadn't lived in Estonia as well as fairly recent emigrants with no other apparent income beyond benefits.

"One of the more typical regions and patterns is indeed the community in Spain, where there are many Estonians together, where Estonian kids study together, where there are educational activities and hobbies," Pähkel described. "There's definitely also movement back and forth between Finland and Estonia. And there are third countries where people move seeking a better climate."

According to Panov, these folks should be applying for benefits in the country they have moved to instead.

Both Kalev and Abdullaeva as well as Muiste have been living abroad with their children basically since fall 2021. When SKA now inquired about as much this year, they honestly admitted to it, resulting in them being counted among those whose benefits were revoked this year.

For both families, the sums in question are €160 a month for two kids. Abdullaeva admitted that although it wasn't a very large amount, their family used this money to pay for their children's sports activities.

Money used to get by

Kalev and Abdullaeva's family are in Morocco on a tourist visa, which means they have to leave the country, however briefly, every 90 days. The kids were attending the American International School of Agadir, and both parents work remotely, with Kalev offering online training, consulting and therapy, and Abdullaeva working on reviving her dormant fashion brand.

"A lot of people think that everything in Africa grows on trees, but we're on the edge of the Sahara Desert there, and not much grows on trees there at all – or on the ground either," Kalev said. "So basically all of our bread actually comes from Estonia."

"It's just sad that I myself was actually a huge Estonian patriot my whole life," said Marika Muiste. "I always worked – it was very important to me that I work in my own country, dance in my own theater, speak Estonian and so on. And somehow my first huge disappointment was with Anatoli's illness, where I just saw that my husband was slipping away from me, and I wanted to scream 'Help me!' somewhere, and then this country turned its back on us."

Despite doctors' best efforts and a public fundraising effort for treatment, Anatoli Arhangelski died in March 2023. Muiste made the decision to stay in the Northeastern Italian city of Udine, where their children Simon and Sofia started first and fourth grade, respectively, this fall.

Their mother receives a ballet dancer's pension from Estonia, teaches some dance lessons, and is currently looking for work. She is particularly upset, however, that on top of losing their child benefits, her kids are now also at risk of being stripped of their survivor's benefits as well.

"You're a widow – you've been left alone with two small children, whom you have to raise by yourself from now on in any case," Muiste said. "And then they start trying to take away even the limited benefits you do have, which for me feels as though I had never worked or done anything. You've worked your entire ballet career in the Republic of Estonia."

According to the social protection minister, it's an emotionally difficult matter, but the laws are the same for everyone.

"This must be very difficult emotionally – this family has contributed a lot to Estonian culture and they've also suffered a great deal emotionally," Riisalo acknowledged.

"But that doesn't change the fact that they have established their life in Italy, and the children don't attend school here," she continued. "The mother doesn't work here and doesn't pay taxes here, so it doesn't really change the facts of the situation. Although, I'll reiterate, it's entirely understandable from an emotional standpoint. It may seem natural in certain circumstances to expect to receive help and support from your home country, but the rules and laws are the same for everyone."

Families may also have to pay back benefits

Some families have challenged the decision to cancel their benefits in court, however in all but one case, the courts have ruled in SKA's favor.

In the worst case scenario, families may also end up facing benefits recovery claims, i.e. claims demanding the repayment of the benefits that had been paid out to them. According to a public court ruling, a record €11,806.10 for two children was reclaimed from an Estonian family who had been living in Switzerland for a long time.

"The family lived, and both parents actually worked in Switzerland; the kids attended school in Switzerland; everything was connected to this foreign country," explained SKA Development Department director Kristina Pähkel. "And Switzerland was actually paying them benefits too."

While at least no recovery claim was filed against the widowed Marika Muiste, SKA is seeking the recovery of €2,500 from the family living in Morocco, which they have not yet repaid.

"I thought, but we hadn't asked anyone [for anything] – you yourselves wanted to pay us," Raul Kalev stressed. "Wait a minute, okay, you didn't want to pay anymore; you made it clear that it doesn't work like that. Okay. But now you come back and say, 'Now pay me back [for] some period.' Now where are we supposed to come up with this money? This was definitely the point that started to get my hackles up. We're now wondering whether we should be stubborn or not."

The family is currently in the country because the older daughter started high school in Estonia this month; their dad will stay with her at least until the new year. Their mother, meanwhile, will be returning to Morocco with the younger daughter, where she will be finishing 9th grade.

While SKA and the minister of social protection both confirm that the campaign to revoke benefits isn't being driven by general austerity plans, they do admit that it helps. Just these thousand cases alone in which benefits were canceled this year would have amounted to millions of euros over the years.

"This is actually a matter of principle," explained SKA family benefits team counselor Artur Panov. "It's unfair to the other people who actually tell us themselves and do everything right, and say, 'Yes, we left Estonia, please stop paying us benefits.' It's unfair to them. It's also unfair to the other people who continue to live in Estonia and continue paying taxes. In reality, the money we pay out is actually taxpayer money."

Panov stressed that it's important to think a bit beyond just the context of one's own family.

"And indeed, we are very free to make our own choices; the world is wide open; we can provide our children with an education somewhere else; we can work somewhere else," he said. "But patriotism or remaining an Estonian also means being honest with your country and your fellow citizens."

The message from officials is that people should update their information in Estonia's registers, because in the worst case scenario, they may be faced with a recovery claim. If a family is living somewhere outside of Estonia for most of the year, they should contact the relevant authorities there to file for benefits. In case of trouble, however, they can turn to SKA for advice.

Since 2019, there have been a total of 2,791 cases of benefits being canceled for children from Estonia living abroad. This includes 959 cases in 2019; 350 cases in 2020; 116 cases in 2021; 22 cases in 2022; 244 cases in 2023 and 1,100 cases to date in 2024.

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