Skip to main content

CIH logo

New Arrivals


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 an EEA citizen (and also see below if you are the family member of an Irish citizen who was born in Northern Ireland);
  • the EEA citizen you are accompanying entered the UK before 11:00 pm on 31 December 2020;
  • you arrived in the UK to join them before 1 July 2021;
  • you do not have EU settled status (whether you have made application to the EU Settlement Scheme or not); and
  • you make (or have already made) an application to the EU Settlement Scheme before 1 July 2021.

If all of these apply to, this page describes your rights to housing and benefits, up to and including 30 June 2021, and from 1 July 2021 onwards but only if you made an application to the EU Settlement Scheme before then. Note the rights that you have differ depending whether you (the family member) entered the UK before 1 January 2021 or between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2021.

In other case, your rights to housing and benefits are described on other pages, as follows:

Who is an EEA 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.

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?

If you are a family member you may not have any documents other than your passport or ID cards, and you will also need some proof of the family relationship (birth, marriage, or civil partnership certificate) and of the dependence, where relevant.

Once you have settled or pre-settled status you will not necessarily have any paper proof of this: it is a digital status, and you have to provide details of how to check it as required.

What are your rights to housing and benefits?

You are entitled to housing, homeless assistance and housing benefit without any further conditions (as is the person you accompany) if:

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.

If you are a family/member or extended family member you can apply for a tenancy from a private landlord or direct from a housing association but in England (in either case) you must show that you have the 'right to rent'. Even though your right to rent is the same as the EEA national you are accompanying, you will still be asked to prove your nationality and (if you are not an EEA national) your right of residence (see above). You must also provide evidence that you applied to the EU Settlement Scheme on time by showing your Certificate of Application (CoA) – if this was provided electronically you can prove this using the share code service.

If you have applied for and been granted ‘settled status’ under the EU Settlement Scheme you have the right to housing and benefits even if you no longer have an EU right to reside. If you have been granted ‘pre-settled status’ you only have rights to housing and benefits in line with your EU right to reside (i.e. as an EEA family member).

See also:

Chartered Institute of Housing
BMENational

More Information

Chartered Institute of Housing