Exportable Benefits

Good morning, Mrs. Humble. I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue and I hope that my voice will last long enough for me to place my concerns on the record. Simon Morgan e-mailed me just before Christmas. He told me that his father had died on 12 December 2009. Chris Morgan and his wife had lived in Alicante in Spain and were endeavouring to secure the payment of exportable benefits. Let me quote from an article written by Chris Morgan for the Costa Blanca News in May 2009.""In the past, the Department of Work and Pensions…decided that anyone who was receiving a disability living allowance, carer's allowance or attendance allowance and moved to another EU country would not receive this allowance. In 2005, a 'test' case was put before the European Court of Justice…in an attempt to"" secure these benefit payments for""non-UK residents. On the 18th October 2007, the ECJ ruled against the UK but for the next 18 months the DWP procrastinated,"" saying""'We are considering the legal implications of a decision by the European Court of Justice and will inform you of the outcome when the result is known.' In March this year"—" that is, 2009—""we were informed by the DWP…that they were now able to look at our case. The letter went on to say, 'The ECJ have decided that certain UK disability benefits are to be considered sickness benefits. This means that they will be paid to some people who leave the UK to live in another EEA state or Switzerland.' The letter—" to Chris Morgan—""then states, 'The decision affects Disability Living Allowance (care component only), Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance. These benefits can now be paid'"" if you satisfy""'certain eligibility conditions'…from a letter we received at the end of April…it would appear that the DWP have shut the door on ALL those, like us, who are already living abroad because this latest letter states, 'As you had not been present…in Great Britain for 26 weeks out of the previous 52 on the day you asked us to look at the decision again, you cannot get Attendance Allowance'"." The late Chris Morgan, eight months ago, summed up the Government's shameful position precisely and they have been wriggling on the hook ever since. The UK/EU Disability & Carers Group, based in Northern France, wrote to the Prime Minister recently, saying:""While you are busy deciding when you are going to comply with the European Court of Justice ruling…we…have received…the following message from the wife of one our members who resides in Spain, having gone there on doctor's"" orders""with the hope that it would prolong his life—as it did."" The letter says:""I am writing on behalf of my husband.""They do not think he will last until next week. We are just waiting for the Army to fly in my two sons tomorrow and then they will increase the morphine and he will not be lucid. They say he is fading fast.""The first thing he said this morning was, 'The DWP has won. I am going to die before they cough up…' The rest is unprintable."" My first question to the Minister is how many more UK citizens now living within the EU or in Switzerland will have to die without receiving the benefits to which they are entitled, while this Government remain in breach of the law? The Minister is aware that this is not the first occasion on which I have raised this issue in debate. He is aware that I have tabled parliamentary questions to his Department and have challenged the Prime Minister orally on the subject at Prime Minister's Question Time. The Minister may find that he has a personal interest in this matter. Another claimant has written from his home in France to Revenue and Customs, declining to pay his tax. That claimant says:""For over six years I have been denied the Disability Living Allowance to which I am entitled under judgement of the European Court of Justice. I am very disabled and losing my sight, yet the DWP continues to squabble with the European Commission, which is now taking"" Her Majesty's Government""to court for failure to pay British citizens living in the EU the sickness benefits to which they are entitled under Community law. This sickness benefit would be tax-free, and exceeds the amount of my private pension, which you tax—like rubbing salt into an open wound.""