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Attendance Allowance - Coordination rules

Liz S
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Welfare specialist and appeals officer - Herefordshire Council Welfare Rights Team

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Advice needed as we rarely have such cases….....

Dutch national resident in UK since 2011 with British wife receiving pension from Holland has been refused AA but no clear reason given so we are assuming that coordination rules are being applied but await copies of the written decision.

Client’s wife is receiving UK pension so can anyone advise on how (if?) this may be challenged….we have looked at this link http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1122&langId=en&intPageId=2993 but it seems broadly equivalent to social care funding in the UK and states that the applicant needs to live and work in the Netherlands.

I am not aware if there is any other benefit similar to AA available in the Netherlands so all advice appreciated.

unhindered by talent
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Welfare Rights Team, Aberdeenshire Council

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This thread http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/7791/  might be helpful. I recently secured an award of PIP ERDL and ERM for a Polish national with a Polish invalidity pension. I only expected to get Mobility component due to the co-ordination rules but it looks like they have accepted that she is economically inactive and gets benefits in kind from the UK (NHS hospital treatment and local authority carers).

Sally63
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Generalist Adviser, Southwark Citizens Advice Bureau

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Sorry to resurrect this thread. I’ve got a guy with a Finnish pension who has also been receiving UK sickness benefits and HB and both DWP and council are trying to take them back. They want £26,000 HB for instance. This has been going on a long time. He’s not pension age. He’s got HIV and he worked in Finland and UK.

The “pension” is more of a sickness benefit as I understand it. Obviously he also has shedloads of NHS treatment but so far that hasn’t come up. He says he always told the DWP and the council about his Finnish income so official error and bankruptcy seem possible solutions to the debts if we can’t fight them off but that doesn’t get him a solution going forward.

I’ve been looking at this http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/european-nationals-and-sickness-benefits but it’s 2016 and explicitly warns that the law may change and the need to stay up to date. I’ve got Bens for Migrants also to help me.

The 2016 blog says

“Taken together, the decisions demonstrate is that the Co-ordination Rules do not contemplate EEA nationals having to work out how the rules apply themselves. Rather, the Co-ordination Rules are an administrative tool for member states when dealing with social security claims by EEA nationals exercising their rights of free movement. This is what the preamble and opening articles to EC Regulation 987/2009 make clear as an objective”.

This struck a chord because at the moment it is just this poor guy (and me) trying to work out what’s going on. How do I get Finland involved so that the DWP can slog it out with administrative equals so to speak?

Stuart
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Not helpful but appears factually similar, the reported case from May 2016 CA/3858/2014 looks at AA and the possibility of dual entitlement if competent state for sickness benefits is not the UK, but finds that UK decision to restrict AA entitlement if UK is not the competent state is within coordination principles.

The decision and reporting note is available from the Tribunals decision database.