Benefits for people from abroad

If you meet the criteria and have the details requested, we may be able to help with housing and council tax benefit.

Please find your country and follow the guidelines.

A16 - A2 EEA States plus ECSMA or CESCC States

For the following countries:

(Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden)

(Switzerland)

(Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey)

• Are you working, is your partner working?
• Are you or your partner actively seeking work, either by claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support?
• Are you or your partner actively seeking work, currently just out of work and looking for instant work, (where we can pay on short period reviews)
• You are not required to provide a Workers Registration Document
• The worker needs to make the claim
• You have to be economically active; for example if you are student you will not be entitled to receive help with your rent and council tax benefit
• Do you own property abroad, if so do you intend to return there, is it up for sale or been kept for any other reason?
• Once you have been in the country legally for 5 years you are habitually resident. You are then treated in the same way as if you were a UK citizen.

A8 - EEA States

For the following countries:

(Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia)

• In the first year you must have been working with Workers Registration Documents in order to receive benefits, (up to four week gap is allowed). Otherwise your one year registered work will restart after that gap in work if longer than four weeks. Evidence is required of your time in work
• You may claim Housing and council tax benefit within the first year if you have continuously worked within that first year (up to the four week gap allowed)
• After one year's continuous work under the Workers Registration Scheme (up to four week gap allowed), you no longer need Workers Registration documents as you will now receive the same rights as an A16 country. You still need to have proof that they have completed the one years certificated work, you maybe able to do this with the UK Residence Documentation for a national of an EEA State (this is a blue card), which can then prove that you have completed one years certificated work. We need to see each proof
• The worker needs to make the claim
• Do you own property abroad, if so do you intend to return there, is it up for sale or been kept for any other reason?
• You have to be economically active for example if you are student you will not be entitled to receive help with your rent and council tax benefit
• Once you have been in the country legally for 5 years you are habitually resident. You are then treated in the same way as if you were a UK Citizen.

A2 - Nationals

(Romania and Bulgaria)

• Skilled workers who meet the criteria for getting a work permit or lower skilled workers doing approved seasonal agricultural work or working in the food processing sector need an accession work card or a Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme Card.
•  In order to apply for benefits you must have a valid passport or ID card and a blue accession work card or a purple registration card depending on your workers skill level. After one year you will no longer require the accession work card and will come under the same rules as a A16 country national.
• Highly-skilled workers and those working legally in the UK on 31 December 2006 are exempt from the scheme and receive the same rights as an A16 country
• Do you own property abroad, if so do you intend to return there, is it up for sale or been kept for any other reason?
• You have to be economically active for example if you are student you will not be entitled to receive help with your rent and council tax benefit
• Those people working under the SAWS scheme will receive Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme card, however as you can only work for six months and then not work for three months under this scheme you will not be able to complete the full 12 months in order to change your status. So to claim benefits you will always be required to supply a valid passport or ID card, a purple accession card for the sector based scheme or a SAWS card which states the dates of employment and name of the farm employing the A2 national, but you must be in work as you are required to be self sufficient in your three month break from work.

Non - EEA Nationals

• Most non EEA nationals have no recourse to public funds
• There are exceptions through the virtue of marriage, but you may lose this right if the marriage status was to change. Successful Asylum Seekers who have indefinite leave to remain for compassionate reasons or are in the UK as family members of EEA nationals
• Do you have a Family Permit, Residence Card or Permanent Residence Card, which would advise us of your current status as regards to public funds?
• Your passport can also advise of your availability to public funds.

Are you habitually resident?

If you do not pass this test you will not receive any housing or council tax support. Each case is considered on its own merits, usually a series of questions will be asked to help establish weather you are habitually resident in the UK. These are not fixed in law but are intended to discover the duration, continuity and durability of your residence in the UK.

The Habitual Residence Test (HRT) was introduced from 1 August 1994 as a test of habitual residence in the Common Travel Area. Since 1 May 2004, anyone who claimed an income-related benefit (Income Support, Income-Based Jobseekers Allowance, State Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support) has been required to show that they have a right to reside in the Common Travel Area. The HRT is a two stage test of the right to reside in the UK or the other area of the CTA. The test is applied to people who have arrived or returned to live in the UK within two years of claiming an income-related benefit.

On 30 April 2006, a new European Community (EC) Directive on the rights of free movement in the EC, introduces new rights of residence for EC nationals. The most significant change is the introduction of a right of residence for the first three months to everyone, including economically inactivity people (for example, a retired person).

More detailed information about the rules relating to people from abroad and housing and council tax benefit, including the changes from April 2006, can be found in the Department for Work and Pensions Resource Centre.

Immigration status test

Under the Immigration Status Test we have to establish the terms of a claimant's entry or stay in the UK. Claimants who do not satisfy the test are known as 'people subject to immigration control' and are not entitled to housing benefit or council tax benefit.

Self-sufficiency

If you are required to be self-sufficient then you must support yourself financially and will not be able to claim benefits.

However all information will need to be brought into our counter or posted into our offices. It will then be verified by a revenues and benefits officer, before we can guarantee benefit will be paid, even though you may feel you meet the criteria above.