European family members

This page is for new arrivals. If you are a housing adviser please click here for information more relevant to you.

Who does this page apply to?

The law about the rights of EEA nationals 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 the family member of a citizen of an EEA member state (and also see below if you are the family member of an Irish citizen who was born in Northern Ireland), and
• the EEA citizen you accompany entered the UK before 11:00 pm on 31 December 2020, and your relationship with them existed before then, and
• you arrived in the UK to join them on or before 30 June 2021, and
• you applied to the EU Settlement Scheme on or before 30 June 2021 or you made a late application which has been accepted, 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 until you get EU settled status or your EUSS application is decided.

In other cases, you can find out if you are entitled to housing and benefits on other pages, as follows:

• If you have EU settled status your rights to housing and benefits are described onthe pages on people with indefinite leave.
• If you have an EUSS family permit (typically because your relationship with the EEA national you accompany began after 31 December 2020 or you arrived to join them after 30 June 2021) see below for your rights to housing and benefits.

• If you are an Irish citizen, or the family member of a British citizen, see: British and Irish citizens.
• If the EEA national you accompany is an Irish citizen who was born in Northern Ireland see: family members of people born in Northern Ireland.
• If you have been granted EU settled status see: people with indefinite leave.
• If you entered the UK for the first time after 31 December 2020 see people with limited leave or people with indefinite leave, according to the type of leave you were given.
• if you failed to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme before 1 July 2021, you may have lost your  right to live and work in the UK and may be an overstayer. You should get advice immediately from a registered adviser at level 2 or level 3.

Who is a family member?

Where an EEA national had a right to reside in the UK, that right usually extended to members of their family, even if the family members are not themselves EEA citizens. In addition former EEA family members could keep their family member rights even though the family relationship had ended.

Whether or not you qualify as a family member depends on the status of the person you are accompanying (e.g. worker, self-employed, student). But from 1 January 2021 it also depends on when you (the EEA family member) and the EEA national you accompany arrived in the UK and whether either or both of you have settled or pre-settled status.

You are not an EEA family member if you have an EUSS family permit.

Who has the right to reside as an EEA family member?

You have the right to reside as an EEA family member or extended family member if:

• you have applied to the EU Settlement Scheme and have been granted pre-settled status (or you are waiting for decision about your status), and
• you are accompanying an EEA national who had the right to reside (as a worker, retained worker, student etc.) on 31 December 2020, and
• either:
  • you arrived to join them on or before 31 December 2020 and you have the permanent right to reside as a family member or former family member; or
  • you arrived in the UK to join them on or before 31 December 2020 and you are an EEA ‘family member’, or an EEA ‘extended family member’; or
  • you arrived in the UK to join them on or before 30 June 2021 and on 31 December 2020 you were their family member or their partner in a ‘durable relationship’.

Meaning of 'family member', 'extended family member' and 'dependant'

You are a ‘family member’ if the person you accompany is an EEA national with a right to reside, and you are:

• their husband or wife (i.e. married, not just partners); or
• their civil partner; or
• a direct descendant (child, grandchild, etc) of that person or of their spouse or civil partner and either:
  • you are aged under 21; or
  • you are dependent on him/her or on their spouse or civil partner (for example, because of being disabled or studying); or
• a dependent direct relative in ascending line of that person or of their spouse or civil partner (i.e. a parent/grandparent).

But if the EEA national you accompany is a student without any other right to reside then you only qualify as their family member if you are their husband/wife/civil partner or dependent child (i.e. under 18 or dependant in other ways).

You are:

• an 'extended family member' if you have been issued with an EEA family permit; and you are:
  • a dependent relative of and reside with, or wish to join, the EEA worker, or his or her spouse or civil partner, not covered by the (family member) list above; or
  • a partner (not being a spouse or civil partner) in a 'durable relationship'; or
  • a relative of either the EEA national, his or her spouse or civil partner, and who, for serious health reasons, is provided with personal care by that EEA national, spouse or civil partner.

You are a dependant (for family member or extended family member status) if you:

• are living in the same household and sharing living expenses; or
• need the financial support of the relative on whom you are dependent; or
• need the care of the relative on whom you are dependent (because of illness or disability); or
• some combination of these.

Family members with the permanent right to reside

If you are a family member (or a former family member in the circumstances set out below) you have a permanent right to reside if one of these applies to you:

• you are not an EEA national, but you have resided with an EEA national who had a right to reside as his/her family member for a continuous period of five years;
• you have continuously resided in the UK for a period of five years using either your family member rights and/or your EEA rights (e.g. as a worker) and at the end of that period you were a former family member with a retained right of residence
• the EEA national you accompany has acquired a permanent right to reside through retirement or permanent incapacity, and:
  • you were their family member at the point they stopped working, and
  • immediately before he/she stopped working, he/she was a worker or self-employed person and your right to reside was as their family member
• you were the family member of a worker or self-employed person who has died, and:
  • you were living with him/her immediately before they died, and
  • either the deceased person had lived continuously in the UK for at least two years immediately before s/he died, or s/he died because of an accident at work or an occupational disease.

What documents might you be asked for?

To qualify for housing or benefits you will need to show evidence of:

• your EU pre-settled status – you can do this with either your eVisa by applying for a share code or, provided it has not expired, your EEA family permit (note this is not the same as an EUSS family permit) or
• if you applied to the EU Settlement Scheme but you have not yet received a decision, your certificate of application and evidence of your nationality (passport, national residence card).

You will also need to show evidence of the status of the EEA national you accompany (e.g. worker, student)  and of your family relationship to them (birth, marriage, or civil partnership certificate) including, where relevant, dependence.

What are your rights to housing and benefits?

If this page applies to you, you only have rights to housing and benefits in line with your EU right to reside, as follows. You are entitled to housing, homeless assistance and universal credit or housing benefit without any further conditions (as is the person you accompany), if:

• you are a family member of a worker or self-employed person (including retained worker or self-employed status); or
• you are a family member or extended family member and the person you are accompanying has a permanent right to reside as a retired worker or self-employed person; or
• you are a family member who has acquired a permanent right to reside on the grounds that the EEA national you accompany has retired or has died.

If you are the family member/extended family member of an EEA national with some other right to reside you will have the same rights as the person you are accompanying. If their right to reside is not through working you must also be habitually resident to qualify for housing or benefits. In Scotland but not Northern Ireland, if the family member you accompany is an EEA jobseeker, you also have the right to join the council waiting list or receive help if you are homeless (but you do not qualify for universal credit or housing benefit).

If you are a family/member or extended family member you can apply for a tenancy with a private landlord or direct from a housing association.