Priti Patel calls on the Government to reduce the cost of sickness benefit paid to UK citizens overseas
Priti Patel asks the Secretary of State about reducing the cost of sickness benefit paid to UK citizens living abroad. She also backs the Government’s legal fight with the European Commission who want the UK to abolish the ‘habitual residency test’ for benefit applicants.
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con): What steps he plans to take to reduce the cost of sickness benefit paid to UK citizens living abroad. [90842]
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith): We are bound by EU rules to pay sickness benefits abroad when people are eligible. I emphasise that they need to be eligible, and the same rules apply to the contributory element on employment and support allowance and incapacity benefit—there are no additional limits. We are determined to clamp down on people claiming when they are not eligible, and we are arguing that through at the moment, even in the Commission.
Priti Patel: In the light of the significant sums being paid in sickness benefits to UK citizens abroad will my right hon. Friend update the House on the legal dispute between the Government and the European Commission? Will he assure me that he will fight the Commission all the way on this matter?
Mr Duncan Smith: The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), is in the Councils on this one. My hon. Friend refers to the Commission’s idea that the habitual residency test should be abolished. That is quite wrong and we disagree with it fundamentally, but we are not alone: a large number of European nations disagree with the Commission and we join them in saying that this is a step too far—a leap into an area that has always been preserved for national Governments and in which it has no right. We will fight this, and I believe that we will win.
