Exportable Benefits

If I can make my point, I will come to the issue that the hon. Gentleman has referred to. We know that some customers may have worked in their country of residence. Once that happens, even if they have now stopped work, they are no longer the responsibility of the UK for payment of sickness benefits, and they will need to claim sickness benefits from their new state of residence. People in the UK can receive a disability benefit, even if they have no income at all. However, under European law relating to sickness benefits, in order to be eligible for payment a person needs to be in receipt of a state pension, or a long-term benefit such as incapacity benefit, or to have paid recent national insurance contributions. People who moved abroad before the judgment and lost their benefits—such as the constituents referred to by the hon. Member for North Thanet—have written to the Department to ask the Secretary of State to reconsider the disallowance decision, and we have looked carefully at all the available options. We can revise a decision when we have made an official error. The definition of an error specifically""excludes any error of law which is shown to have been an error by virtue of a subsequent decision of a Commission or the court."" When we decided to disallow benefit when people moved abroad, the decision was made under relevant legislation that was appropriate prior to the decision by the European Court of Justice. People reclaiming benefits they received in the past must therefore not have worked in their state of residence, must be receiving a long-term contributory benefit such as incapacity benefit or state pension, or must have made recent national insurance contributions. They must also satisfy relevant domestic conditions of entitlement. As I noted earlier, we consider the past presence test to be a necessary condition of entitlement to a non-contributory benefit, as it establishes a recent link to the UK. However, we recognise that people abroad who have not left the UK recently will not be able to qualify.