co-ordination rules and UC

Under the co-ordination rules EU citizens coming to the UK may be entitled to ir-JSA or cb-ESA if they worked and were entitled to these benefits in their home countries (I think I’ve got that right)

Under UC they are all refused because they do not have a right to reside.

Surely the government cannot over-ride the co-ordination rules which will be EU law? What am I missing?

Not income-based JSA - it’s just contribution based JSA that is exportable at the expense of the member state in which it was earned.  UC is either social assistance or a special non-contributory cash benefit (I cannot find any official pronouncement on whether it has been added to the list of UK benefits counting as the latter) - both of which are not exportable.  The Alimanovic case dealt with the German equivalent of UC and was not good news for claimants either entering the job market or not economically active at all.  I think the UK would point to Alimanovic as justification for excluding EEA jobseekers from UC.

thank you. I’ve got it now. I thought I must be mis-understanding one or the other because they appeared to be contradictory.

They are but that’s OK because the classifications differ and the ECJ accepted that (I understood it was ib-JSA not ir I just had a brain wipe-out)