Court of Justice to decide whether self-employed women have Saint Prix maternity rights
In Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v HD (CHB) (Second interim decision) [2018] UKUT 148 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal decided to make a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The question is whether an EU national who was self-e ...
22nd May 2018Whether the right to reside test complies with EU law when applied to ‘family benefits’
Desmond Rutledge considers the Advocate General’s Opinion (C-308/14) on the EU Commission’s action against the United Kingdom’s use of the right to reside test. This post was originally published on the Garden Court Chambers Blog. The origins of ...
22nd October 2015The Dano Effect: The restriction on benefits paid to EU citizens who are former workers
Desmond Rutledge examines the recent decision in Alimanovic (C-67/14) which holds that it is lawful for a Member State to restrict the period a former worker from another Member State can access benefits upon becoming involuntarily unemployed based o ...
21st October 2015Backdating welfare benefits payments to those recognised as refugees in the UK
In Blakesley v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWCA Civ 141 the Court of Appeal considered whether the UK Government is in breach of its international obligations towards refugees because of the lack of any provision to make back-payme ...
12th March 2015Benefits to be withdrawn from EEA jobseekers previously unaffected by the January 2014 changes
In January 2014, the Government introduced a number of measures aimed at restricting EEA migrants’ access to income-based JSA. A key change was the introduction of a statutory presumption that entitlement to income-based JSA (‘JSA(IB)’) would be ...
24th February 2015Challenging a refusal of permission to appeal by the Upper Tribunal
This piece started life as a practice note for welfare benefits cases but the same principles are transferrable to the immigration jurisdiction so we thought it would be helpful to share it here on Free Movement as well. If permission to appeal agains ...
16th February 2015New Zambrano case: Good news and bad news for Zambrano carers
Court of Appeal rules that the Zambrano status arises immediately and there is no need to show destitution. However, Zambrano carers have no entitlement to mainstream social assistance following the amendment to the habitual residence test in November ...
10th February 2015Existing EEA migrants at risk of destitution following the removal of Housing Benefit
New Social Security Advisory Committee Report voices concerns On 20 November 2014, the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) published its Report on the regulations which remove entitlement to Housing Benefit for certain categories of European Eco ...
25th November 2014Dano and the exclusion of inactive EU citizens from certain non-contributory social benefits
When the Grand Chamber handed down its judgment in Dano v Jobcenter Leipzig (C-333/13) on 11 November 2014, it was the subject of much media attention: Germany can deny benefits to jobless EU migrants, court rules (The Guardian), Landmark ECJ ruling ...
19th November 2014Removal of entitlement to housing benefit for EEA jobseekers
On 19 January 2014, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May told the Daily Mail that Britain’s generous welfare system should no longer be a ‘magnet’ for citizens of other EU states and that they would be introducing a number of measures aimed at new ...
21st March 2014Using the minimum earnings threshold to determine who is a ‘worker’
The Department of Work and Pensions has introduced the Minimum Earnings Threshold ‘(MET)’ as part of the decision making process for determining whether EEA nationals who claim income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA(IB)) have retained the statu ...
18th March 2014New habitual residence test and the impact on returning UK nationals
The habitual residence test has been part of the benefits system since 1996. Under the test, new entrants to the UK and returning nationals are required to show that they are habitually resident in the Common Travel Area (the UK, the Channel Islands ...
14th March 2014The political row over benefits and EU migrants
New rules restricting access to welfare benefits for new EU migrants including a six month statutory presumption for benefits paid to jobseekers. In this post Garden Court Chambers barrister Desmond Rutledge looks at how we got here, what are the new ...
13th January 2014Provision to claim child benefit without breaching the public funds condition
It is well known that those who have been granted leave to remain (LTR) in the United Kingdom but who have a ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition attached to their leave (including those who have applied under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rul ...
7th January 2014Welfare benefits for EEA nationals: Is the refusal of benefit proportionate?
In the recent case of Pensionsversicherungsanstalt v Peter Brey [2013] EUECJ C-140/12 (19 September 2013), the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) ruled that welfare benefit legislation which automatically bars benefit to an EEA nation ...
29th October 2013