Immigration: EEA Nationals

(asked on 18th January 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor whether EEA nationals residing in the UK who are out of work or not actively seeking work for a period longer than three months have been asked to provide evidence (a) of identity and nationality of an EEA member state and (b) that they are exercising a free movement right in the UK.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 23rd January 2017

An EEA national has the right to reside in the UK for more than three months where they can demonstrate they are exercising free movement rights. Exercising such rights in this context means that they must be a worker, jobseeker, self employed, self sufficient or a student.

Newly arriving jobseekers must wait for three months before they can claim Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) and are subject to a genuine prospect of work (GPOW) test after three months. Retained workers, those who have previously worked in the UK and left work involuntarily, are subject to the GPOW test after six months on JSA. Following a GPOW test, if an EEA national does not have a genuine prospect of work, benefits are stopped immediately and they are liable for removal from the UK.

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