A benefit may be regarded as a social security benefit if it is granted, without any individual and discretionary assessment of personal needs, to recipients on the basis of a legally defined position and relates to one of the social security risks expressly mentioned in the coordination regulation.
Thus, in order for a benefit to be a social security benefit within the meaning of the regulation, it must simultaneously satisfy the following conditions:
- entitlement to the benefit should be legally enforceable. This is the case when the institution responsible for paying the benefit lacks any discretion to grant the benefit to a person satisfying the objective conditions laid down in the national legislation. These conditions may include a means-test.
- the benefit must relate to one of the following branches of social security: sickness benefits; maternity and equivalent paternity benefits, invalidity pensions, old-age pensions, survivors’ benefits, benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases; death grants; unemployment benefits; pre-retirement benefits; and family benefits. Benefits which do not appear on this list are outside the scope of the regulation, unless they display a sufficient link with any of the risks mentioned. This is the case, for instance, with long-term care benefits, which constitute sickness benefits for the purposes of the coordination regulation (see also the keyword material scope and social security risks).
It should be noted that the way in which a benefit is classified under domestic law is not decisive for determining whether or not it is covered by the coordination regulation. The relevant assessment is based essentially on the constituent elements of the benefit in question, in particular its purposes and the conditions on which it is granted, and not on the classification of the benefit under national legislation. For instance, a benefit which is considered by the national authorities as belonging to the field of social assistance may well be a social security benefit for the purposes of the regulation, having regard to its intrinsic characteristics. Likewise, a benefit which forms part of a national maternity insurance scheme may well constitute a family benefit within the meaning of the regulation. Also continued wage payments in case of sickness which under national legislation form part of labour law, have to be regarded as social security benefits for the purposes of the coordination regulation.
