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Dear folks,

Hello everyone. I would be grateful for some useful advice. I am an Italian national and have been working and living in the UK since 2001 till date excercising my treaty rights as an EEA migrant worker. I married a non EU national in 2007. In 2007, I applied for perment residence which was granted to me. My spouse after three years residence in the Country is now in full time education. According to student finance, because I was granted perment residence in 2007, I am no longer considered as a european migrant worker and can only be now classed as a UK national.
Therefore, because my husband is a non EU national, he can only be entitled to have his tuition fees paid and his application was assessed as an EU national. All other maintenance loan and grants he normally would have been entitled to as a spouse of an EEA migrant worker or even so a spouse of a Uk national has been denied. An EU national is someone who normally lives in his home country and wants to come to study in the UK. My husband is not a EU national, yet his application was assessed as one. I am very confused here. Will someone be able to answer my questions please? (1) Does applying for permanet residence in a host country (UK) means one automatically looses their status as a migrant worker and benefits of treaty rights even though I am still in full time employment? (2) If acquiring permanent status has classified me as a UK national, why was not my husband's application treated as one? Why was he asked to submit a EU students loan application form? I find it difficult to understand their decision and should I appeal and take this matter to court for clarification of directive2004/38/EC. Does anyone have an idea about this law and how it applies to my case? I need urgent replies please....

What exactly is your problem? In what way do you feel discriminated? Your spouse is obviously treated just like an EEA national and that's how it should be because he enjoys the same rights.

What ground was it denied on? Do you have it in writing that they claim since you acquired PR you are treated as a UK national? Loads of bullokks! You can only be classed as a UK national if you naturalise and that's it, you can continue to take advantage of your EU nationality in the UK till you denounce it (if at all!).

That's not right that they you can find yourself in a worse position having worked over 5 years and acquired the PR compared to a worker who has only worked a bit and whose family members are taking advantage of the Directive Article 24 on Equal Treatment.

There is the whole grey area about what happens when one acquires PR. Are you classified as a qualified person even if not working but while in possession of a PR? I think you'd still need to work if you want to rely on being a qualified person/exercising treaty rights, if not, you're only here as a settled person but your family members would not be able to rely on you in that sense.


My advice is, if you are still working, then your family member is entitled to have their loan application and other grants assessed in line with the EU worker's family members and other home students! Tell them they are breaching the law by refusing to consider your husband's application on this basis. Although how you could challenge that in practice (JR, appeal system etc), I do not know.



One thing is clear, your husband should be treated equally to the home students. Many don't understand that in contrast to EU students who must, at the outset, have funds, insurance etc. the family members of workers DO NOT NEED TO! they can benefit from the simple fact that their family member is exercising the treaty rights as a WORKER, as you are still working.

Ignore the fact that you acquired the PR, it is only relevant if you decide to claim help from the government and can do so indefinitely as opposed to the workers without PR, who would not be entitled to unlimited support!

In cases such as this, you are still exercising treaty rights as a worker/qualified person, your hubby is entitled to everything what the UK nationals are entitled to! Art.24 on Equal treatment.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAn ... /DG_065322

And this link tells you who to contact for breaches of the EU Law, petition EU parliament, call the practical advice line etc, whichever Uni that is, they are stepping over that line by fobbing you off hoping you'll not come back.

http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/info ... our-rights


Good luck and let us know how you get on.

victoriadthorpe wrote:Dear folks,

Hello everyone. I would be grateful for some useful advice. I am an Italian national and have been working and living in the UK since 2001 till date excercising my treaty rights as an EEA migrant worker. I married a non EU national in 2007. In 2007, I applied for perment residence which was granted to me. My spouse after three years residence in the Country is now in full time education. According to student finance, because I was granted perment residence in 2007, I am no longer considered as a european migrant worker and can only be now classed as a UK national.
Therefore, because my husband is a non EU national, he can only be entitled to have his tuition fees paid and his application was assessed as an EU national. All other maintenance loan and grants he normally would have been entitled to as a spouse of an EEA migrant worker or even so a spouse of a Uk national has been denied. An EU national is someone who normally lives in his home country and wants to come to study in the UK. My husband is not a EU national, yet his application was assessed as one. I am very confused here. Will someone be able to answer my questions please? (1) Does applying for permanet residence in a host country (UK) means one automatically looses their status as a migrant worker and benefits of treaty rights even though I am still in full time employment? (2) If acquiring permanent status has classified me as a UK national, why was not my husband's application treated as one? Why was he asked to submit a EU students loan application form? I find it difficult to understand their decision and should I appeal and take this matter to court for clarification of directive2004/38/EC. Does anyone have an idea about this law and how it applies to my case? I need urgent replies please....

Dear Mcovet,
Thanks very much for reading through my post and replying. I am a paediatric nurse and have never ever stopped working and never being a burden to the system. I have in writing that since I have claimed PR, I am now classified as a UK national and thats the reason why my husband is only getting his tuition fees paid and nothing else. This was a blow as I am now struggling to pay nursery fees for my daughter and to support my husband financially for the next three years. You are right. I have worked for years and I am still working but our rights have been denied.
Thanks very much for the links which I will check out and will definitely will be making a loud noise about is. I will keep you informed about the income. Once again I am very grateful for this information

Your whole story is written very confusingly. EEA nationals and their family members regardless of their nationality have the same rights as UK nationals. The exceptions are essentially that EEA nationals must be able to support themselves without relying on the social assistance system "too" much (the UK seems to have a clear definition what public funds are accesible and which are not depending on situation) and also can't vote in national elections. A PR holder has full access to public funds including the whole range of the social assistance system.

This also implies that the conditions for studying in the UK must be the same for EEA nationals and their family members. The only restriction being that the UK imposes certain residence requirements (mentions also PR holders) and some others which you seem to fulfil, however. Holding PR or not is actually quite irrelevant.

The argument that a PR holder is not considered a migrant worker anymore may be formally right but that does not mean, in a weird converse argument, that the PR holder and their family members would lose any rights. I got the impression from your first post that somebody got hooked up to much on the term "migrant worker". An EEA PR holder does not need to demonstrate that he/she is exercising treaty rights. In fact, this cannot be considered anymore (from which this strange argument obviously originates).

What I do not understand is why you say that "his application was assessed as an EU national" because that's exactly how it should be done. Maybe you just give us the full text of the denial letter(s)?

Hi Guru and thanks for taking your time to reply and read further. The denial letter quotes " As part of my investigation, I have noticed that your wife was granted "Indefinitive leave to remain" in 2007. In view of this I am sorry to to have to inform you that you are not eligible for support from the EEA Migrant Worker and Special support Teams.
As a non EU national your eligibility for support is based on your wife's employment as an EEA migrant worker. This means that your wife needs to be an EEA national who is exercising her treaty rights as a worker in the UK. However, as your wife holds "Indefinite leave to remain" this means that for work purposes she is classed as a UK national and not an EEA migrant worker. As the spouse of an EEA national with "Indefinitive leave to Remain" in the UK you are however eligible to rceive a tuition fee loan from the EU team at Student's finance. I have enclosed form EU10n for you to apply for this if required".

This is exactly what the denial letter states. First and foremost, I have a permanent residence card and not "indefinite leave to Reamin". EU citizens and EEA nationals have the right to acquire PR status after residing in their host member state after 5 years. This right is to ensure social integration and prevention of expulsion after residing for a long time in a member host state. I have looked at Dirctive2004/38/ec and no where does it state that once one acquires a PR status, treaty rights ceases and you become a UK national. Further, I have worked and exercise my treaty rights since 2001 . Only a naturalization status, I believe will deny me that right because I will be denuncing my EU national.
Furthermore Article 24 (2) seems to be in my favour as it has restrictions on some people but not residents with PR status. Please read what the article says:

Article 24
Equal treatment
1. Subject to such specific provisions as are expressly
provided for in the Treaty and secondary law, all Union citizens
residing on the basis of this Directive in the territory of the
host Member State shall enjoy equal treatment with the
nationals of that Member State within the scope of the Treaty.
The benefit of this right shall be extended to family members
who are not nationals of a Member State and who have the
right of residence or permanent residence.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the host
Member State shall not be obliged to confer entitlement to
social assistance during the first three months of residence or,
where appropriate, the longer period provided for in Article
14(4)(b), nor shall it be obliged, prior to acquisition of the right
of permanent residence, to grant maintenance aid for studies,
including vocational training, consisting in student grants or
student loans to persons other than workers, self-employed
persons, persons who retain such status and members of their
families.

A special thanks to MCovet for giving me this thread link. Now I am more than convinced that my husband application has been wrongly assessed with a EU10n form. This form is specifically reserved for EU nationals who habitually resides ordinarily in their home states but may want to come and study in the UK. They are entitled to tuition fee loan and nothing else. In other words, they are exempted from loan and maintenance grant. This is definitely not our case. I am planning to challenge their decision and access al the channels that will help in enforcing such rights and even go to court if I have to.
.
If there is anyone out there with legal knowledge and interpretation of the law related to my PR status and article 24 (2) please respond and comment. Once again thanks for all your help and interest

victoriadthorpe wrote:[...] your wife was granted "Indefinitive leave to remain" in 2007. [...] This means that your wife needs to be an EEA national who is exercising her treaty rights as a worker in the UK.

And there's were they got it all wrong: not ILR but PR which, however, confers the same rights. You may want to ask them from where they got the idea that you must be exercising treaty rights.