Norway disability benefit and PIP

Hi
We have a client who was born and raised in England then on 27th November 2006 moved to Norway for work.  They worked until Sept 2012 when they were made permanently disabled.  She was awarded disability benefits (translated to disability pension “Ufoeretrygd”) at a reduced rate because she had lived in the UK for 23 years prior to moving to Norway. She does not receive 100% of the disability benefits so applied for PIP daily living component to help with the costs of being disabled. The client was rejected and is now awaiting a tribunal.

The client feels that she’s been penalised for living in the UK for 23 year and that this is not an unjustified overlapping of benefits.

The client has contacted us as she went on Gov.UK and the online questions said that she “may be entitled to PIP”.  We cannot see how this is as Norway is the competent state, she has no link to the UK etc but they are adamant.

Are we missing anything?

Thanks

Surely she should be appealing the decision of the Norwegian authorities to reduce her Ufoeretrygd as it is inconsistent with the co-ordination principles to reduce the benefit by reference to residence in a fellow co-ordinating state?

This is from Ufoeretrygd
We determine your social security period based on actual social security period and future social security period. Your actual social security period is the period during which you have been a member of the national insurance system from the age of 16 onwards to the time of disability. The future social security period is the period from the time of your disability until and with the year you turn 66.
The amount of your disability benefit depends on how long you have been a member of the national insurance.
Full social security period is 40 years. If the social security period is shorter than 40 years, the disability benefit is reduced.
Your social security period in Norway
From and up to and including
27.11.2006 (date i moved to Norway) 31.08.2012 (day before i got sick)
You have been a member of the National Insurance for less than 4/5 of the time from the time you turned 16 until your time of disability. This means that your future social security period will amount to 40 years where we deducts 4/5 of the time from the time you turned 16 until the time of your disability.

Yes but its a general principle of the social security co-ordination rules that residence in another co-ordinating state can be aggregated as though it were residence in the competent state for these kinds of tests. Co-ordination rules aren’t exclusive to UK benefits.

I am not in a position at the moment to give this the attention it requires (and in any event I am not a Norwegian lawyer) but my suspicion would be that she is entitled to claim an increase in her Ufoeretrygd by reference to her history in the UK because of the co-ordination agreement we have with them (to which see the current version here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/1060/schedule/made)

Thank you Elliot!