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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

Joint claim for ESA/HB when one partner is an EU student.

Geri-G
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Welfare reform team - North Ayrshire Council

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Total Posts: 91

Joined: 4 June 2013

Client is an EU Student (Scotland), and getting living expenses paid for by her government.Her course is due to finish in two weeks and she planned to stay here and get a job as her course starts again in September.

However she is living with her boyfriend (UK citizen), who was working but has been diagnosed with cancer and is starting chemotherapy this week. From everything I have read, she satisfies the habitual residence test and the right to reside test.  Boyfriend will claim ESA/PIP and HB. However this is where it gets messy, and am not sure (I don’t deal with this client group)

They share a rented flat (one bedroom)-would they get full HB…as she is a student if she is joint person on claim) and an EU resident (she is probably going to have to care for him during summer, as it is an aggressive form of cancer, when /if he gets his PIP award, can she get Carers Allowance.

Joint claim for ESA as a couple..obviously, but would they get the full couple rate.. again due to her EU/ Student status, as he would be claiming for her?

I think she is worried about this (taken from Citizens Advice website)

If the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decides that you’re an unreasonable burden on the UK benefits system and you make claim for benefits, you could lose your right to reside as a student. If you lose your right to reside as a student you will lose entitlement to benefits.

Sally63
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Generalist Adviser, Southwark Citizens Advice Bureau

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Joined: 21 January 2016

From the CPAG welbens bk on the subject of EU students:

Students
You have a right to reside as a student if you are an EEA national and you
are enrolled as a student in a government-accredited college;
provide an assurance at the start of your studies that you have sufficient resources for yourself ....... not to become a burden on the UK social assistance system during your period of residence
and any family members who do not have an independent right to reside have comprehensive sickness insurance (see above).

so she doesn’t have the right to claim anything and he cannot give her rights because he is a UK citizen unless he has worked in another EU country.

The last par is correct except that she doesn’t have a right to benefits to lose.