The EU Commission has published a guide setting out tests for the purposes of establishing habitual residence, which is the test used to determine where certain individuals qualify for social security (for the purposes of contributions and entitlements). Employees and the self-employed generally qualify for social security in the country where they work and non-active people (e.g. pensioners, students) qualify in the Member State where they are “habitually resident”. Determining a person’s Member State of “habitual residence” is also important for workers that work in more than one Member State.

The guide, drafted in cooperation with Member States, clarifies the separate concepts of ‘habitual residence’ and ‘temporary residence’ or ‘stay’. These definitions, laid down in EU law (Regulation EC/883/2004 as last amended by Regulation EU/465/2012), are necessary to establish which Member State is responsible for the provision of social security benefits to EU citizens moving between Member States. Under EU law there can be only one habitual place of residence and so only one Member State responsible for paying residence-based social security benefits.

According to the Commission, the guide also provides concrete examples and guidance on cases in which the determination of the place of residence can be difficult, such as frontier workers, seasonal workers, posted workers, students, pensioners, and highly mobile inactive people.