Fundamental rights section 3.7. Antidiscrimination 3.7.1. Discrimination based on nationality or ethnicity 3.7.1.1. Families of foreign citizenship have problems receiving family allowances Families of foreign citizenship living in Austria are particularly often affected by problems in receiving the family allowance. As an example, the family allowance is often limited to an unjustifiably short timeperiod. In other cases, foreign families sometimes have to wait for years before their claim to family allowance is established. Further problems concern the retroactive granting of a family allowance for so-called “late-born” children. Already in October 2006, the Ombudsman Board noted that a shorter time limitation of the family allowance for families of non-Austrian origin constitutes a case of maladministration. Nevertheless problems continue to arise in practice. As an example, a family where the mother comes from Colombia was only granted the family allowance for the younger son for four years. For the elder son, it was granted – as usual – until the 18th year of life. In another case in which the father is not an Austrian citizen, the family allowance was only granted for 6 months and the mother left in doubt as to the reason why a further granting was refused. This posed a huge financial burden on the family as with the discontinuation of the family allowance the childcare benefits and the insurance protection would have been discontinued as well. In both cases the Ombudsman Board was successful and the family allowance was granted without a special time limitation. No explanation for the short time limitations was given to the Ombudsman Board. The official procedure on the claim to family allowance poses another problem for many foreign families as the duration is sometimes extremely long. Foreign families sometimes wait two years and more for their claim to a family allowance to be granted which they were in some cases first refused. In the proceedings, the families are sometimes also asked to produce documents in a quantity and quality that is as such not necessary for the procedure. These cases could quickly be settled after the intervention of the Ombudsman Board. As the Federal Ministry of Health, Family, and Youth admitted, an investigation of possible fake selfemployment had been done, although it would not have been necessary, namely whenever the permanent residence and the center of vital interests as well as sufficient means of subsistence are established. The problems thus evidently resulted from ambiguities regarding the legal prerequisites of the course of family allowances, in particular in the case of families who have moved to Austria from the new EU member states. 32nd Report of the Austrian Ombudsman Board to the National Council and the Federal Council 2008 27