EUROPE: The British authorities were justified in refusing social security payments to an Irish national who moved to England to look for work, the European Court of Justice ruled yesterday.
Although in recent months Britain has been worried that migrants from eastern Europe might shop around for welfare payments once the European Union is enlarged, the judgment appears to uphold British safeguards against the possibility of "benefit tourism".
The European Court in Luxembourg has endorsed the requirement that the claimant should be "habitually resident" in the UK before he or she is entitled to benefits.
The rules of UK's jobseeker allowance require that a claimant without family has to be habitually resident in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or must be "a worker" as defined by a 1968 EU law, or must have a right to reside in the UK given by another 1968 EU law.
The case was brought by a Mr Brian Francis Collins, who was born in the United States, and has dual Irish and American nationality.
As a student, he spent a term in the UK in 1978. In 1980 and 1981 he did part-time and casual work as a barman and sales assistant.
He returned to the US in 1981.
At the end of May 1998, he arrived in the UK from the US to look for work in the field of social services. On June 8th, he claimed a jobseeker's allowance, which was refused on the ground that he was not habitually resident in the UK. Mr Collins appealed and the UK's social security commissioner referred the case to the European Court of Justice.
The court said he was not a worker as understood by the EU law but it was for the national court to judge whether national rules used the term differently.
The court ruled jobseekers had a right of residence under EU treaties, which grant freedom of movement, but that would not entitle him to a job-seeker's allowance.