SA29. Your social security insurance, benefits and healthcare rights in the European Economic Area
Benefits
12. Jobseeker's Allowance
Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) has both a contribution-based and an income-based element. If you have paid enough Class 1 National Insurance (NI) contributions, you will get a personal rate of contribution-based JSA as long as you are both available for and actively seeking work. Contribution-based JSA may be paid to jobseekers in EEA countries. See the rules in this section.
If you do not qualify for contribution-based JSA, or it does not fully meet your needs, you may qualify for income-based JSA. Income-based JSA is normally only payable to jobseekers who have a right to reside “and” are habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, and is not covered by the rules in this section. For more information about the right to reside contact your social security office, Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre.
Nationals from Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia who have been working for less than 12 months have a right to reside while they are in work and registered under the Worker's Registration Scheme. If they cease work their right to reside will usually depend on being self-sufficient and they are unlikely to qualify for income-related benefits. For more information contact your social security, Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre.
UK contribution-based JSA in another EEA country
If you are getting UK contribution-based JSA,
- and you have been registered as available for work, usually for four weeks, at a UK Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre,
you may be able to carry on getting UK contribution-based JSA for up to three months while you look for work elsewhere in the EEA . But you must have been getting contribution-based JSA before you go abroad.
UK contribution-based JSA is paid by the employment services in the EEA country in which you register for work. Payment is made in local currency at the rate of contribution-based JSA you were paid in the UK, and is authorised on form E303. This form is issued by The Pension Service.
If you can get UK contribution-based JSA in another EEA country, you can get a letter from your Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre to help you in registering for work in that country. Give it to the authorities who run the employment services in the other country.
If you can get UK contribution-based JSA in another EEA country and you are going to look for work in any of the following countries, you will also be given form E303:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland.
But you must tell the Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre in good time before you go that you need it. If you do not, it will be sent to your address in the country you have moved to. If you are going to look for work in any other EEA country, then form E303 will be sent to a liaison office in that country.
In each country in which you are looking for work you must:
- register for work;
- and follow the rules of that country about being available for work.
You can only get benefit while you are registered at the employment office in the other EEA country. Normally, as long as you register before the end of seven days after you left the UK, you may carry on getting your UK contribution-based JSA without a break in your entitlement. But you should note there may be a delay before the other EEA country pays you, so try to make sure that you have enough money to last.
Once you have been paid UK contribution-based JSA for a time spent in another EEA country, you cannot get it again for another length of time when you are seeking work abroad, unless you have done more work and you have paid into the UK NI scheme.
If you fall sick while you are looking for work in another EEA country
If you fall sick while you are looking for work in another EEA country, you may get UK short-term Incapacity Benefit, instead of UK contribution-based JSA. But you will only get it for as long as you can get UK contribution-based JSA.
Claiming benefit for unemployment after working in another EEA country
You may have become unemployed after working in another EEA country. If so, and you were last insured in that country's unemployment insurance scheme, the authorities there may be able to use your UK insurance as an employed person to help you get their unemployment benefit. The authorities who run the unemployment insurance scheme in the other EEA country will ask HM Revenue and Customs for details of your UK insurance record.
HM Revenue and Customs will send form E301 to them. They will usually need to get in touch with the employer you used to work for in the UK before they can send form E301.
When the authorities in the other country get form E301, they will look at your UK insurance record and decide if they can use it for your claim. But note that form E301 does not give you any automatic right to receive unemployment benefit in another EEA country.
When deciding your claim, the foreign authorities will use their own rules.
If you have been working in another EEA country and have paid UK Class 1 contributions as set out in Working in another EEA country for a UK employer,
- and the time you were sent there for has come to an end,
- and you stay in the EEA country where you were working,
you may still be able to get unemployment benefit from that country in certain circumstances. But note that you will not be able to get UK contribution-based JSA until you come back to the UK.
Looking for work in the UK
If you paid unemployment insurance while you were employed in another EEA country, this may enable you to get UK contribution-based JSA following your return to this country. But you must have:
- either worked as an employed person and paid Class 1 contributions since the last time you arrived in the UK;
- or remained habitually resident in the UK during the time you were working in another EEA country.
If either of these apply to you, you may need a record of your unemployment insurance from the authorities who run the unemployment insurance scheme in the other country. If you can, ask them for form E301 before you return to the UK and keep it in case you need it. If you do claim contribution-based JSA, give form E301 to the Jobcentre Plus office or Jobcentre dealing with your claim. But note that form E301 does not give you any automatic right to UK contribution-based JSA.
For further information, contact The Pension Service.
If you are coming to the UK, or coming back here to look for work, you may be able to carry on getting the other EEA country's unemployment benefit in the UK for up to three months. To get it, you must:
- normally have been getting that country's unemployment benefit just before you came to the UK;
- and have been registered as available for work for at least four weeks, or for any shorter time that the other EEA country allows;
- and register for work in the UK;
- and claim benefit.
You can only be paid the other country's unemployment benefit for the time that you are registered, unless you fall sick. As long as you register before the end of seven days after you were last registered with the employment services of the other country, you may normally carry on getting your unemployment benefit without a break in your entitlement. But there may be a delay before you are paid in the UK.
To get another EEA country's unemployment benefit in the UK, you will need form E303. Ask for it in the country you are about to leave.
Make sure that you do everything that you need to do to follow the rules before you leave. If you do not, you may lose benefit.
Give form E303 to the office at which you claim benefit in the UK. But note that some countries will not give you form E303. Instead they will send it direct to The Pension Service.