Living but not working in another EEA country
If you are going to live, but not work, in another EEA country, you may get healthcare cover from the UK for yourself, and for any members of your family who depend on you and who go with you, under the state scheme of the other country. But this cover will only be for a limited time. How long it lasts will depend on whether you could still get UK short-term Incapacity Benefit if you claimed it. When this period ends, the UK cannot give you any more healthcare cover unless anything in the following sections applies to you:
- Getting long-term Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, widow's benefits, bereavement benefits or State Pension when you are living in another EEA country
- Getting Maternity Allowance or short-term Incapacity Benefit when you are living in another EEA country
- Getting Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit when you are living in another EEA country
- Getting Working Tax Credit, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance or Carer’s Allowance in another EEA country
Before you move abroad, ask The Pension Service, Tyneview Park, for more information.
When you get forms E106, register the forms by giving them to the authorities who run the sickness insurance scheme in the country where you live. If you have family members who cannot be issued with form E106 in their own right, they may be covered as members of your family on your own form E106, but this is a matter for the authorities there.
Ask them if they can include your family members when your form E106 is registered.
Prior to visiting any other EEA country you will need to get an EHIC from the UK for your medical cover. When form E106 is issued to you, you will also be sent an EHIC application pack. Send the completed form to the NHS Business Services Authority in the envelope provided.
If you start work in the country where you live, you should become insured for healthcare under that country's sickness insurance scheme. The forms E106 and the EHIC issued by the UK will then no longer apply to you.
If you do not meet the rules for form E106 yourself, and cannot be covered as a member of the family of someone who you depend on and live with, you may be able to pay voluntary contributions to the state sickness insurance scheme of the country you move to. This depends on the law of that country. If not, you will have to take out private medical insurance. In most other EEA countries, you must prove that you have adequate healthcare cover before you will get a right of residence.
