People who have come to Great Britain from abroad
- General rules
- Special rules
- More information
- People who come to GB temporarily
- Habitual residence test
- Interviews
- Sponsored immigrants
- People who have limited leave to remain in the UK
Special rules apply for people who have come to live in GB (England, Scotland and Wales) from another country (including returning British citizens) and who want to get Pension Credit.
Whether your customer can get Pension Credit will depend on their residence or immigration status. They will also have to satisfy the normal Pension Credit rules, including the requirement to have the right to reside and to be habitually resident (known as the habitual residence test).
General rules
In general, your customer can get Pension Credit as usual if they:
- pass the habitual residence test
- are eligible under the normal Pension Credit rules.
Special rules
There are special rules for people in GB as the result of a written maintenance undertaking.
More information
For more information about immigration issues, visit the UK Border Agency pages of the Home Office website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk.
People who come to GB temporarily
If your customer is not a European Economic Area (EEA) national and has come to stay in GB temporarily and has been allowed into the UK on the understanding that they are self-supporting and ‘have no recourse to public funds’, they cannot normally get Pension Credit. This is because people who are subject to immigration control are not entitled to income-related benefits.
Habitual residence test
Your customer must show that they have a right to reside and are habitually resident (unless exempt from the test, see below) in the common travel area (that is, the UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man) before they can get Pension Credit.
Your customer will satisfy the right to reside requirements in the UK if they:
- are a British citizen or a British passport holder with a right of abode
- are a national of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland and a worker or a self-employed person or a person who retains those statuses for the purposes of European Community (EC) law. (If your customer is from one of these countries and is not a worker or self-employed, they will generally have the right to reside only if they are not a burden on public funds or they are a dependent family member of a worker or self-employed person)
- are a national of Bulgaria or Romania who is self-employed, or working as an authorised worker (or exempt from authorisation) under the Worker Authorisation Scheme. (If your customer is from one of these countries and is not a worker or self-employed, they generally have the right to reside as long as they have sufficient funds to support themselves so that they are not a burden on social assistance)
- have leave to enter or remain in the UK which allows recourse to public funds.
- a worker or self-employed person or person who retains either of those statuses for the purposes of EC law
- a family member of such a person for the purposes of EC law
- a person who has a right to reside permanently in the UK under EC law
- a national of Bulgaria or Romania who is self-employed, or working as an authorised worker under the Worker Authorisation Scheme
- a refugee
- someone who has been granted humanitarian protection
- someone who has been granted leave to remain in the UK exceptionally, outside the immigration rules
- someone who is not subject to immigration control who has been deported back to the UK,
- someone who left Montserrat after 1 November 1995 due to volcanic activity.
- a person who:
- arrived in Great Britain on or after 28 February 2009 but before 18 March 2011
- immediately before arriving they had been resident in Zimbabwe and
- before leaving Zimbabwe had accepted an offer made by Her Majesty’s Government to assist that person to move to and settle in the United Kingdom
- how long your customer lived abroad
- why your customer came to the UK
- how long your customer plans to stay here,
- whether your customer has a settled pattern of living here.
Once your customer has shown that they have a right to reside (see above), they must also demonstrate that they are habitually resident before they can get Pension Credit subject to certain exceptions.
Your customer will be exempt from showing habitual residence if they are:
If your customer does not fall into one of the above categories, but has shown that they have a right to reside in the UK, the decision maker will decide whether they are habitually resident.
There are no hard-and-fast rules so the decision maker will decide in a common-sense way based on personal circumstances. They may take a number of things into account, such as:
If the decision maker decides your customer is not habitually resident then they cannot get Pension Credit. If your customer disagrees with this decision they have the right to appeal.
What to do when a decision is considered wrong.
Interviews
If your customer, or their partner, has come to live in the common travel area they may be asked to go to an interview. They must take their passport, and their partner’s passport, and any letters they have received from the Home Office. At the interview they will be asked about their immigration and residence status. From this information, a decision maker will decide whether they can get Pension Credit.
Sponsored immigrants
Sponsored immigrants are normally given indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK and are admitted to the UK on the understanding that they have relatives who are prepared to support them without recourse to public funds. The sponsor signs a maintenance undertaking which is legally binding.
Sponsored immigrants are not entitled to Pension Credit for five years from the date of their entry or the date on which the maintenance undertaking was signed (whichever is the later), unless the sponsor or sponsors (if more than one) die.
People who have limited leave to remain in the UK
If your customer is from abroad and has limited leave to remain in the UK with no recourse to public funds, they must normally be self-supporting.
