Child Disability Payment decision making guide
EU rules on social security coordination
EU rules on social security coordination apply across the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. The EEA is the EU Member States together with Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein). The rules do not replace national systems of social security with a single European one. All countries are free to decide:
- who is insured under their legislation
- which benefits are granted and under what conditions
The coordination rules are intended to ensure that people can both:
- exercise their rights of free movement, and
- not be adversely affected by the application of different national social security systems
The coordination rules depend on benefits paid in EEA member states or in Switzerland being classified into different categories. Some categories of benefit must be available to people living in a country other than the country in which their benefit is usually paid. Eligibility for benefits in other categories can be restricted to only those people living in the country where the benefit is paid.
A separate set of residency criteria therefore applies to some:
- EEA member state
- Swiss, and
- third country
nationals who apply for CDP to Social Security Scotland. Both the presence and past presence tests have been ruled unlawful in this context by the European Court of Justice. This means individuals covered by EU rules do not have to satisfy those tests.
The EU rules also require that some payments should continue to be made to individuals where they have left Scotland to live in an EEA member state or Switzerland. (This is known as ‘exportability’ – see Export, below). Individuals should be able to apply from abroad. (known as ‘first claims from abroad’ – see First Claims from Abroad, below).
It is important to note that an award of CDP can include both or either:
- the mobility component
- the care component
These two components are in different EU classification categories and only the care component is subject to the coordination rules. The care component is classed as a ‘cash sickness benefit’ in EU law.
The mobility component is a ‘special non-contributory benefit’ or ‘SNCB’ and is therefore never paid abroad. However, it can be awarded to individuals in Scotland even where the UK is not the competent state because it falls outside the scope of the coordination rules (see Competent State, below).