AA and ‘present in the uk for 26 weeks’

Can anyone clarify whether presence in another EU country counts for residence in he UK for AA purposes.My client came back from Andorra just before Xmas and has been refused AA on the grounds that they do not meet the ‘past presence’ condition.

The Handbook seems to say that the claimant must have been present in GB for 26 weeks in the last 52 before they can claim AA but then goes on to refer to the EU coordination rules which states that time spent in another EU state can count towards the past presence condition.

Particular mention was made of EU reg 883/04 in connection with past presence but, despite reading it several times , I do not seem to be able to get my head round it. Does anyone have any words of wisdom/ past experiences of this that might clarify the matter?

thanks

Andorra’s not EU, so 883/04 not going to apply.  Apparently there’s an cooperation agreement but that seems unlikely to help either - http://eeas.europa.eu/andorra/index_en.htm

Thanks, I didn’t realise that Andorra wasn’t in the EU, apparently its is governed by Spain and France on some sort of rota so I thought it was in the EU by default!