Right to Reside - Which benefits does the right to reside test apply to?

• Child Benefit
• Council Tax Support
• Housing Benefit
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance*
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit

* Note it is no longer possible to make a new claim for income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

For all the benefits listed above, you must have a right to reside when you claim and continue to have a right to reside as it is an on-going requirement. This means your benefit could stop if you lose your right to reside.

The requirement to have a right to reside applies to the claimant.  If you live with a partner and claim Universal Credit you must make a joint claim and therefore the right to reside requirement applies to both partners.  If you have a qualifying right to reside, but your partner does not, Universal Credit is paid to you as a single person, but your partner’s income and capital are still taken into account.

Satisfying the other benefit conditions

If you have a right to reside, your entitlement to benefit will depend on you also satisfying the other conditions for the benefit.

For means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit, as well as having a right to reside you also need to be ‘habitually resident in fact’ in the  common travel area  unless you are in one of the exempt groups below.

You are exempt from the Habitual Residence Test for  means-tested benefits  if you:

• have refugee leave or humanitarian protection.
• left Ukraine in connection with the Russian invasion in February 2022 and you were living there until the end of 2021, and you have leave in the UK or you are British or Irish.
• left Afghanistan in connection with the collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021 and you have leave in the UK.
• left Sudan in connection with the violence that escalated from April 2023 and you were living there before then and you have leave in the UK or you are British or Irish.
• left the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Lebanon or Israel due to the violence on or since 7 October 2023 and you were living there before then and you have leave in the UK or you are British or Irish.
• were residing in a country immediately before the UK government advised British nationals to leave, or arranged for their evacuation from, that country, the advice was given, or evacuation was started, less than 6 months ago, and you have leave in the UK or you are British or Irish. 
• have been granted leave outside the Immigration Rules - including Discretionary Leave and Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concessionary Leave.
• have leave in the UK under a safe and legal humanitarian immigration route.
• are not subject to immigration control and have been deported, expelled or removed from another country to the UK.
• are an EEA national who has a ‘worker’ or ‘self-employed’ status  in the UK, including if you have retained that status.
• are a family member of someone in the above groups. 
• are an EEA national with a permanent right to reside due to having ceased work because you retired or became permanently incapable of work – or you are the family member of such an EEA national and were when they stopped work.
• (for housing benefit) are in receipt of Pension Credit, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, or Universal Credit.

For council tax support, the groups exempt from the Habitual Residence Test are broadly the same as for housing benefit and include most of the groups listed above. However, there are some differences with the exempt groups, and also the types of right to reside that satisfy the test, and these vary between England, Wales and Scotland. If you are refused council tax support,      get advice.