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Fatwa CenterCheating the government to get its financial support for students living alone
Question
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmato allahu wa barakato I am a young woman living in Denmark with my parents and siblings. Over here the government supports students by giving them money as long as they go to school/university after they become 18. The tricky thing is, that as long as you live with your parents this financial support is about 2500 Danish Kroners (a little over 400$), but when you move out of your parents household you get 5000. Obviously many people (muslim and non-muslims) have found a way to get the 5000 kroners without moving out. They move there address so that it seems like they live outside the parents’ household even thought they still do. My question is: is it haram to do so? Because we called the social-worker and she told us that if we did so we were cheating the government. We asked some imams here and they all told us that it was okay, but they couldn’t prove the rightness when we told them what the social-worker said. To be honest im always thinking about the fact that we always must council with our hearts. قلبك استفتي … and my heart is telling me that as muslims we must not lie or cheat, and that if we do the money we get is haram. My brother has already made it after he got the green light from the imam, and im worried about whether the money is haram or not. I hope I made the circumstances around my question clear, so I can get a clear answer. Thank you, and may Allah reward you.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Indeed, you did well by asking for a Fatwa about the matter that you did not know after feeling that this matter is unlawful. In fact, it is as you mentioned that the act of cheating the government and giving them wrong information is forbidden lying and deceit that are not befitting for the Muslim, and it is consuming people’s money without right. Hence, your brother and other students should fear Allaah and not lie and cheat the authorities in order to take what is unlawful.
The Book of "Fiqh of the Muslim Minorities" reads: “It is known today that countries do not give a visa entry to someone who wants to enter their lands except on the condition that he abides by their constitutions and general laws that all indicate that it is forbidden to do acts like stealing, cheating, transgression and consuming people’s money unjustly and so forth. Of course, this coincides with the person getting the visa, rather it comes prior to it. The Islamic ruling on this is that one should fulfill it even for a non-Muslim as long as it does not include a void condition in which there is a disobedience to Allaah. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 87867 and 92554.
Allaah Knows best.
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