The Limits to European Social Citizenship in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The limitations surrounding eligibility for social security benefits involve many different, and often competing, policy decisions. One such set of restrictions, currently the cause of considerable public debate, is the limit imposed on the right to claim income-based social security benefits for those persons who, despite being citizens of a Member State of the European Union (EU), or a country within the European Economic Area,1 are not United Kingdom nationals. For a decade the right of such people to means-tested benefits was dependent on whether they were deemed to be'habitually resident' in the United Kingdom, a term laid down in Regulations.2 Article 39 EC explicitly provides for the free movement of workers throughout the EU, and European Regulation 1612/68 EEC3 allows workers from each Member State the same tax and social advantages as nationals of other Member States. But United Kingdom legislation has insisted that European migrant workers demonstrate at least some willingness to be both resident, and have some tangible connection to the nation before eligibility for incomebased out of work benefits is granted to them.4 The Social Security (Habitual Residence) Amendment Regulations 2004,5 which came into force on 1 May 2004 after a detailed report by the Social Security Advisory Committee,6 have replaced 'habitual residence' with the concept of 'right to reside' as the primary eligibility criterion for income-based unemployment and incapacity for work benefits. This entails that migrants from the more established EU countries must possess the right to reside and be habitually resi-