Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Disability Living Allowance

David Burrage [Legal advisor to the Spanish Association of British Expatriates] has received correspondence from the European Commission.
You can link to David's comments and also the letter from the Commission.
It can be difficult to follow the discussion but essentially it is this.
The UK Government had posed a 26 week rule which stated that DLA recipients should have spent 26 weeks out of the last 52 within the UK to reclaim this benefit which was previously illegally removed from the recipient, perhaps some years before!  The Commission make it clear that this 26/52 rule is itself illegal.
There is also debate on the 'mobility fraction' of the DLA, on which again the UK Government is wriggling.
Links (click) below..
David Burrage's note
The EU Commission's letter -the third page of this puts the situation lucidly.
It is important to understand that there are pensioners who wish to retire to Continental Europe, perhaps to join their children who have previously moved there.  They may well be invalid and have received and need this support, but have found it difficult or impossible to have it continued once they have moved.  This infringes the concept of 'freedom of movement' integral to the condition of Europe.

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