Benefits for EU migrants to be ‘cut off’ after 3 months
EU migrants' entitlement to out-of-work benefits is to be 'cut off' after three months, the Prime Minister has said. Writing in the Telegraph on 28 July 2014 (click here), Mr Cameron said that to address the 'magnetic pull' of Britain's benefit system -
'... we are announcing today that we are cutting the time people can claim these benefits for. It used to be that European arrivals could claim jobseeker’s allowance or child benefit for a maximum of six months before their benefits would be cut off, unless they had very clear job prospects. I can tell Telegraph readers today that we will be reducing that cut-off point to three months, saying very clearly: you cannot expect to come to Britain and get something for nothing.'
it is expected that the new rules will be introduced from November 2014.
In Ahmad v Secretary of State for the Home Department (AIRE Centre intervening) [2014] EWCA Civ 988 (Arden, Beatson, Sharp LJJ), the claimant argued that his wife, who was a student, should be regarded as having comprehensive sickness insurance cover for the purposes of having the right of residence for a period of longer than three months as she was entitled to use the National Health Service and did not need to have private cover to do so. The Court rejected this submission holding that the expression “comprehensive sickness insurance cover” used in article 7(1)(c) of the Directive 38/2004/EC could not include the public healthcare system of the host state as that would defeat the object of the Directive. Click here for transcript of judgment.
