Treaty rights, working full-time prior to becoming a student

[maria_alice]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help,

I am a EU national and came to the UK in 2007. I worked full-time for a year before becoming a full-time student with a UK bursary (I qualified for the bursary due to being a migrant worker). I was a student until 2011 but worked occasionally as a healthcare care assistant in the NHS. I am a nurse now and have been in full-time employment since qualifying (nearly 5 years).

It was only when I started completing the application for ILR that I first heard of health insurance for students, I was quite shocked to be honest. I wonder if anyone knows if you still need the insurance if you had been a full-time worker for a year prior to commencing studies... as I was living here I couldn't of course apply for the european health insurance card from my country of birth as I was a UK resident. I was never told at any point at university that I needed insurance either.

I wonder if anyone has been in the same position and can advise.

Many thanks

(I am going to cross-post this in another forum so I am sorry if you're reading twice)

[noajthan]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help,

I am a EU national and came to the UK in 2007. I worked full-time for a year before becoming a full-time student with a UK bursary (I qualified for the bursary due to being a migrant worker). I was a student until 2011 but worked occasionally as a healthcare care assistant in the NHS. I am a nurse now and have been in full-time employment since qualifying (nearly 5 years).

It was only when I started completing the application for ILR that I first heard of health insurance for students, I was quite shocked to be honest. I wonder if anyone knows if you still need the insurance if you had been a full-time worker for a year prior to commencing studies... as I was living here I couldn't of course apply for the european health insurance card from my country of birth as I was a UK resident. I was never told at any point at university that I needed insurance either.

I wonder if anyone has been in the same position and can advise.

Many thanks

(I am going to cross-post this in another forum so I am sorry if you're reading twice)

Don't be too hard on yourself, this catches many people out, you are not the first, won't be the last.
Universities and NHS trusts are not immigration advisors and may not be up to speed on all the nuances and subleties of EU migration.

Unfortunately if you didn't have CSI (or alternative) whilst a student then your PR clock will have stopped once you became a student.
(Being a worker beforehand only covers you as a worker, there is no benefit carried over to another category of qualified person).

As you didn't have a foreign EHIC your only real hope is if you had a RC issued to you as a student in/before 2011.
Did you have such a RC?

Or a couple of longshots...
is it possible you were covered by a parent's health cover from abroad?
Or did you have any potential EEA sponsor in UK and exercising treaty rights in UK at same time as you were a student? (for example an EEA national parent).

Worst case: Your PR clock was reset to zero and only restarted when you started working again.

PS Multiple posts are not permitted. Imagine the confusion if a patient had 2 NHS records.

[maria_alice]

Thanks for your reply.
I would have thought that the universities should inform EU students of the requirement to have insurance if indeed this is needed if you become ill. It has nothing to do with immigration, it seems.
No, I don't have any of the things you suggest. What I don't understand is, if you're working even if you're a student, why are you obliged to have insurance.
I'm not sure when my clock would reset then... I finished my degree in August and continued to work as before, zero-contract hours essentially, but of course doing more hours than when I was a student. I then started full-time employment in December 2011, I had to wait for my registration to come through etc. I never stopped working, that's where my confusion comes from.
I wasn't aware of cross posting now being allowed, post has been deleted now anyway.
Thanks again.

[noajthan]

Thanks for your reply.
No, I don't have any of the things you suggest. What I don't understand is, if you're working even if you're a student, why you are obliged to have insurance.
I'm not sure when my clock would resent then... I finished my degree in August and continued to work as before, zero-contract hours essentially, but of course doing more hours than when I was a student. I never stopped working, that's where my confusion comes from.

Under EU law work has to be genuine and effective rather than marginal and supplementary. Occasional part-time work whilst a student will not be enough to be categorised as a worker qualified person.

You can dig into how a caseworker will assess and weigh up your case here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf
- see page 11+

Be aware HO also applies its MET/PET tests to assess work and whether someone is a worker; (this goes above and beyond EU law):
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/using-m ... ne-worker/

[maria_alice]

Thanks, that's very sad but very helpful, particularly the document which the case workers use. I guess I have no choice but to wait until I've been working full-time for 5 years... Not that long to go now, but seriously worried that we may not be able to apply for IL by then due to Brexit.

[noajthan]

Thanks, that's very sad but very helpful, particularly the document which the case workers use. I guess I have no choice but to wait until I've been working full-time for 5 years... Not that long to go now, but seriously worried that we may not be able to apply for IL by then due to Brexit.

Yes, very sad and dark days ahead.

Suggest that in the meantime you consider applying for an optional RC to confirm your current status in UK.
This could prove especially worthwhile if you have some time before actually acquiring the holy grail of PR.

That is because, with the traditional British sense of fair play, transitional arrangements may be put in place for the thousands of Union citizens (and family members) who are already 'in flight' on a EU migration trajectory (and yet possibly with no time left in which to acquire PR).

if so (and it is speculation) then such transitional arrangements may depend on possession of appropriate EU-related documentation by some key date; (all yet TBC ofcourse but previous transitional arrangements have, for example, depended on someone having a RC).

[maria_alice]

I will do just that. Thank you very very much, really appreciated.

[Richard W]

I would have thought that the universities should inform EU students of the requirement to have insurance if indeed this is needed if you become ill. It has nothing to do with immigration, it seems.

It actually has everything to do with immigration. The principle is that students should not be a burden to the host state, so the insurance is needed for that reason. This is part of an EU-wide agreement. The UK used to have the principle that long-term residents did not, in general, pay for the use of the NHS. Resident EEA nationals receive NHS treatment on the same basis as British citizens. CSI for EEA students is not for the benefit of the insured; it is for the benefit of HM Treasury. A long-term EEA resident should not receive a bill for NHS hospital treatment.

The principle of insurance has now been extended to non-EEA long-term students, who have the bargain rate of the £150 a year IHS surcharge when they apply for their Tier 4 visas.

No, I don't have any of the things you suggest. What I don't understand is, if you're working even if you're a student, why are you obliged to have insurance.

If working were a significant enough part of your activities, you might be able to claim that you were a worker rather than student.