Expats claiming benefits can check their entitlements online with a new tool.
The checklist published and newly updated by the UK government covers 12 main benefits expats can expect while living overseas.
The advice covers someone living in the UK planning to move overseas or an expat who lived and worked in the UK who now lives abroad.
The guidance tells expats how to qualify for the benefit and gives contact details for making or amending a claim.
The data is country specific.
What benefits can expats claim?
Benefits covered include:
- Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- State Pension
- Maternity Benefits
- Child Benefit
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
- Statutory Sick Pay
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Benefits for carers and the disabled
- Bereavement benefits
- Tax credits
- Income Support
Organise your life before you leave the UK
“Find out which UK benefits you might be able to get while you’re abroad and how to claim them,” says the government web site.
“The UK has social security agreements with some countries that allow you to claim UK contribution-based benefits while you’re there and mean that your National Insurance contributions can count towards your eligibility for that country’s benefits
“It’s easier to organise benefits before you leave, but you must meet the benefit’s eligibility criteria to get it.”
The government web site also has an extensive country-by-country guide to living abroad.
The topics covered included how to access healthcare, voting in UK elections and how to find support from the UK consulate or embassy.
The web site is a little hazy about how British expats will claim benefits in European Union countries after Brexit, but has some useful information about reciprocal social security agreements the UK has with other countries.
Besides the EU nations, these are:
- Barbados
- Bermuda
- Bosnia‐Herzegovina
- Canada
- Chile
- Israel
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey and Guernsey
- Korea
- Macedonia
- Mauritius
- Montenegro
- Serbia
- The Philippines
- Turkey
- USA
Index-linked state pensions are available for expats moving to these countries. Elsewhere, the regular amount is frozen at the level of the first state pension payment.
Most benefits and pensions are paid directly into a local bank account from the UK for expats – and in most cases the payment is in the local currency as well, which reduces fees and exchange rate losses.
Where do I find advice regarding OAP and possible benefits my husband is entitled to? He is British by birth, and has recently been diagnosed with advanced dementia/Alzheimer. We live in Holland (my birth country) since 2019