Readers of the PILA Bulletin may recall reading about the Free Legal Advice Centres' (FLAC) involvement with a project on EU migrant’s access to social security. To recap, FLAC has partnered with the AIRE Centre in London, and a Dutch consultant in the Netherlands, in an EU Commission funded Tri-City project on EU migrants' access to special non-contributory benefits, or in other words, those listed in Annex X of EC Regulation 883/04 in the three cities. The relevant social welfare payments in Ireland are Jobseekers' Allowance, State Pension (non-contributory), Widow's and Widower's (non-contributory) Pension, Disability Allowance, Mobility Allowance and Blind Pension.
The project has been running since December 2011 and will end in March 2013 and the overall aim is to improve the information that EU migrants in Amsterdam, Dublin and London have about their right to access special non-contributory benefits. This will be achieved by collecting statistical data, holding round-table discussions with other NGOs and lawyers, reviewing decisions of courts and tribunals and analysing the findings to support the sharing of information, development of best practice and increase in capacity of advisers’ and representatives’ knowledge about special non-contributory benefits across the three cities.
The first few months have focused on the roundtable events which began in London on 19 January 2012. Leading practitioner Adrian Berry, barrister (Garden Court Chambers), AIRE Centre Legal Director Adam Weiss and Martin Williams from the Child Poverty Action Group provided detailed information on the legal and practical challenges facing migrants in the UK. On Thursday 1 March 2012, FLAC hosted the second roundtable in Dublin, which attracted a large number of stakeholders and included presentations from legal practitioners and NGOs working in the field in Ireland and the UK as well as the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) presented findings from a recent report on immigrants’ take-up of social welfare payments throughout the EU which dispelled common myths surrounding the issue of so-called ‘welfare tourism’. Materials from both sessions are available here.
The final roundtable took place on 14 May 2012 in The Hague and was attended by Saoirse Brady, Dublin project officer and FLAC's Policy and Advocacy Officer, along with Karen McLaughlin, a FLAC legal intern working on social welfare law issues. Project partners from the AIRE centre in London and academics and NGOs working in this field in the Netherlands were in attendance. One of the points of discussion during the day centred around the position of economically inactive EU migrants and residence tests relating to Special Non-Contributory Benefits, which has been addressed in a recent trESS report.
In addition, an official from the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion also attended the roundtable. Interestingly, the European Commission has recently issued infringement proceedings against the UK in relation to the application of the European Union rules on the free movement of EU citizens and their families across the EU. If the UK does not address this within 2 months, it will face an EU court case. The EU Commission press release is available here.
The next phase of the project will focus on monitoring cases and producing information notes. FLAC would greatly appreciate if others working in this field would make contact with them and share any relevant cases. FLAC has developed a survey to help persons working in this area identify whether their case falls within the scope of the project which can be accessed here.