ECJ Irrespective of the characteristics peculiar to the various national laws, social security benefits must be considered to be of the same kind when their purpose and basis of calculation are the same. In that respect, benefits acquired under the legislation of two member states, which seeks to ensure that an aged person deprived of the income of his or her deceased spouse has sufficient means of subsistence, and the respective amounts of which are determined on the basis of the insurance and social security contributions of that spouse, must be considered to be benefits of the same kind by reason of their identical purpose and basis of calculation.
When a worker receives a pension pursuant to national legislation alone, the provisions of regulation no 1408/71 do not prevent that legislation from being applied to him in its entirety, including the national rules against overlapping benefits. If, however, the application of that national legislation is less favourable to the worker than the application of article 46 of regulation no 1408/71, the provisions of that article must be applied. On the latter supposition, paragraph (3) of article 46 is applicable to the exclusion of rules against overlapping laid down by national legislation.
Where benefits of the same kind are granted or awarded in different member states on the basis of analogous national rules, without any reference to the provisions of regulation no 1408/71, there are no grounds for applying the method of currency conversion set out in article 107 of regulation no 574/72.
No provision of community law requires the periodical recalculation, by reason of a variation in the rates of conversion of currencies, of a social security benefit whose amount has been established in another member state.
Citations:
R-238/81, [1983] EUECJ R-238/81
Links:
European, Benefits
Updated: 21 June 2022; Ref: scu.215161
