Appeal by the Secretary of State for Work against a decision that the respondent is entitled to state pension credit. The issues in this appeal concern the construction of the Directive governing the rights of Union citizens and the validity of certain domestic regulations applying to Latvian nationals working in the UK.
Held: The appeal failed. Though article 17(1)(a) of Directive 2004/38/EC used the word ‘resided’ without no qualification, articles 16(1) and (2) used the phrase ‘resided legally’. At first sight, therefore, one might think article 17(1)(a) to be referring to something wider than legal residence. However, European Union statutes must be interpreted more widely, allowing for the context and purpose of the Directive.
(1) The Secretary of State succeeded on the construction of the Citizens Directive. The word ‘reside’ in article 17(1)(a) meant ‘legally reside’ which in this context meant residence in the exercise of rights under the Citizens Directive. As a result, the Court of Appeal did not need to rule on a new argument advanced by the respondent for the first time in the Court of Appeal, namely that even if ‘resided’ in article 17(1)(a) of the Citizens Directive means ‘legally resided’, that word has a wider meaning in regulation 5(2)(c) of the 2006 Regulation where it means actual residence, with or without any right to remain. The Court of Appeal was, however, inclined to the view that ‘resided’ in regulation 5(2)(c) of the 2006 Regulations has the same meaning as in the Citizens Directive.
(2) There was no error of law in the Upper Tribunal’s conclusion that the extension of the WRS was disproportionate and therefore incompatible with EU law.
Judges:
Rupert Jackson, Lindblom, Peter Jackson LJJ
Citations:
[2017] EWCA Civ 1751, [2018] 1 WLR 3324, [2017] WLR(D) 798, [2018] 2 All ER 228
Links:
Statutes:
State Pension Credit Act 2002 1(2)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Gubeladze SC 19-Jun-2019
The claimant had come from Latvia to the UK in 2008, but not registered under the Worker Registration Scheme until 2010. She now sought state pension credit. The SS appealed from a judgment that it was to calculate her entitlement to include her . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits, European
Updated: 06 April 2022; Ref: scu.599377
