Former EEA family members
This page covers the whole of the UK
Contents:
Who does this page apply to?
The law about former EEA family members’ rights to live, work and claim access to housing, benefits and other services changed on 1 January 2021 when the Brexit transition period ended. You have the rights described on this page only if:
- you are a former family member of an EEA citizen;
- the EEA citizen you originally accompanied entered the UK before 1 January 2021;
- you arrived in the UK to join them before 1 January 2021; and
- you make (or have already made) an on-time application to the EU Settlement Scheme and either:
- you have been granted EU pre-settled status, or
- you are waiting for a decision about your EUSS application.
If all of these apply to, this page describes your rights to housing and benefits. In any other case your rights to housing and benefits are the same as any other non-EEA national according to the kind of leave you have.
Who is a former family member?
As former 'family members' you may retain EEA family member rights even though the relationship with the EEA national you accompanied (your ‘sponsor’) has ended because of their death, the termination of your marriage/civil partnership or them leaving the UK. You may be a national of an EEA member state, or you may not be.
Death of your sponsor
If you are the family member of a ‘qualified person’ or permanent resident who has died you retain your right of residence if:
- you are not an EEA national but if you were, you would be a worker, a self-employed person or a self-sufficient person, and you were residing in the UK for at least one year before their death using your family member rights, or
- you are the family member of such a non-EEA national, or
- you are their child or grandchild (or the child or grandchild of their spouse or civil partner) and immediately before their death you were in education and remain in education, or
- you are the parent with custody of such a child.
If you meet the first (or second) of these apart from the requirement to be employed or self-sufficient, see advising EEA family members for more information.
Divorce or civil partnership dissolved
If you are the former spouse or civil partner of a person who, immediately before the termination proceedings for your divorce/dissolution began, was a ‘qualified person’ or permanent resident you retain your right of residence if:
- you are not an EEA national but if you were, you would be a worker, a self-employed person or self-sufficient person, or
- you are the family member of such a person and either:
- your marriage lasted for at least three years, and you lived together in the UK for at least one year before it was terminated, or
- there is at least one child for whom a court order requires residence or contact to take place within the UK, or
- your continued residence in the UK should be allowed due to particularly difficult circumstances (such as where you or a family member suffered domestic abuse during the marriage).
If you meet these conditions apart from the requirement to be employed or self-sufficient, see advising EEA family members for more information.
Sponsor left the UK
If you are the family member of a ‘qualified person’ who has left the UK, you retain your right of residence if:
- you are their child or grandchild (or the child or grandchild of their spouse or civil partner) and immediately before they left the UK you were in education and remain in education, or
- you are the parent with custody of such a child.
If you meet these conditions apart from the requirement that you (or the child you care for) were in education immediately before your sponsor left the UK, see advising EEA family members for more information.
What are your rights to housing and benefits?
If you are a former family member with retained rights, you will be treated as if you are still an EEA family member with the same rights to housing and benefits.
If you are the bereaved family member of a former worker or self-employed person, and that person had lived in the UK for at least two years before their death or died as a result of an occupational disease, you have a right of permanent residence and are eligible for housing, homelessness assistance and universal credit, state pension credit or housing benefit without any further conditions.
If you have a right to reside as a former EEA family member for any other reason:
- you are eligible for universal credit, state pension credit or housing benefit provided you are habitually resident (or exempt from that requirement)
- in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you are eligible for housing or homelessness assistance provided you are habitually resident (or exempt from that requirement)
- in Scotland, you are eligible for housing or homelessness assistance without any further conditions.
See also:
