Benefit enquiry

[Mcdade]

A friend of mine is on DLA and is thinking of moving over to Spain. Is it possible for her to keep her DLA in Spain or will she have to give the benefit up?

[sara3]

"Going abroad to live or visit

If you are going to live abroad permanently you cannot usually get Disability Living Allowance.

If you move to another country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland and you already receive the care component of Disability Living Allowance, you may continue to get it under certain circumstances.

If your visit abroad is temporary, you may continue to get Disability Living Allowance if:

* your absence from Great Britain does not last more than 26 weeks (this includes going on holiday)
* your absence is only to get medical treatment for a condition which began before leaving Great Britain"

[sara3]

from this site.. http://www.direct.gov...Allowance/DG_10012424

[Buenchico]

DLA has two components. One is the 'care' component. The other is the 'mobility' component. The care component can be paid overseas (as can Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance) but your friend would not get the mobility component of DLA if she moved to Spain:
http://www.direct.gov...cialsupport/DG_073387

Chris

[oldexpat]

So long as she goes back to the UK from time to time of course she can have all the money.

[factor-fiction]

Some excellent answers as always.
I was wondering- is this your friend who posted on here today?
http://www.theanswerb...l/Question926043.html

[Buenchico]

Oh, that's just great. Two completely contradictory answers, both derived from the Government's own website!

I think that mine trumps Sara's though. That's certainly not because I'm better at researching answers than she is. It's solely because Sara's link seems to take no account of the 2007 ECJ ruling, so I assume that I've had the good fortune to find the latest information, whereas Sara has unfortunately found a page which still contains the old information.

Chris

[oldexpat]

Well I would not expect anything else.