[2024] UKUT 405 (AAC)

CA is provided for in section 70 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (“the SSSCBA”). It is payable to a person who is engaged in caring for a severely disabled person, where the conditions in subsection (1) are met.

Section 70(4) provides that a person shall not be entitled to CA under she satisfies prescribed conditions as to residence or presence in Great Britain. Again, there is no dispute that SE, who is a UK national who lives in the UK, has satisfied these conditions at all material times.

However, subsection (4A) provides as follows:

The two EU regulations referred to are measures of EU law whose purposes is to “co-ordinate” the provision of social security law between EU member states. A fuller account of their place within EU law, and the powers and purposes under which they were enacted, can be found in Harrington (¶¶5-10).

Reg 883/2004 was brought into force by EU Reg 987/2009 (“the Implementing Reg”), on 1 May 2010, from which date it replaced Reg 1408/71. Since the facts of this case span the period of application of both regulations, it is relevant to consider both. I would add that, following the approach of Lewis LJ in Harrington, it may be relevant to the construction of Reg 883/2004 to consider the predecessor provisions in Reg 1408/71.

Reg 833/2004 only came into force for Switzerland in 2012. Nothing turns on this because it is not suggested that anything of significance occurred in SE’s case between 2010 and 2012, albeit I think that, strictly, it the date of coming into force in Switzerland that matters.

The decision under appeal pre-dates the UK’s departure from the European Union, and relates to the rights of SE during a period which pre-dates that departure, so it is not necessary to consider any complexities arising from that departure.