Attendance Allowance denied due to presence rules- Client from Montserrat.

Hi all,

I’m away from CPAG at the moment.

Client is a 84 year old female who recently came back from Montserrat in January-she went there on holiday but was taken ill and was in a care home there until she came back to the UK. Before this she lived in the United Kingdom for over 20 years.

She has been denied Attendance Allowance- for not passing the presence test as she has not been here for 104 weeks out of the last 156 weeks.

Are people from Montserrat not subject to presence rules-due to its status as a british overseas territory? or am imagining that. Will check this up in CPAG when I get back to my office next week.

Cheers

Wouldn’t she be treated as only temporarily absent from the UK anyway? How long was she away? If it was less than 26 weeks I think she’d be OK under the usual temporary absence rules.

1964 - 19 February 2016 02:04 PM

Wouldn’t she be treated as only temporarily absent from the UK anyway? How long was she away? If it was less than 26 weeks I think she’d be OK under the usual temporary absence rules.

Thank you for your reply. On closer inspection she left here in November 2008 and came back in January of this year. So that is out the question now.

Oh dear….

I don’t think her being in a British overseas territory makes any difference does it? I recall there were special rules concerning Monserrat when the volcanic eruptions were at their height but that’s a while back now. Unless I’m missing a trick she’s going to be subject to the ordinary past presence rules.

Yes that’s what I initially thought. Thanks for your help with this.