Under the UK Worker Registration Scheme nationals from Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia or Slovenia have to legally work in the UK for 12 months, uninterruptly, to get a registration certificate confirming their right to work and live here. Then, they qualify for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Crisis Loans, and allocation of social housing.
However, the European Commission considers these rules as “discriminatory” and to “be in breach of transitional arrangements on free movement of workers, as well as the obligation to ensure equal treatment on the basis of nationality.” The UK is allowed, under the transitional arrangements on the free movement of workers “ to restrict the right to reside as workers under certain conditions” but, according to the Commission “they do not allow discrimination when paying benefits.”
Today, the Commission sent a "reasoned opinion", the second stage of the infringement procedure, requesting the UK “to end discriminatory conditions on the right to reside as a worker which exclude from certain social benefits nationals from eight of the ten Member States (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland) that joined the EU in 2004.” Consequently, the UK has two months to amend its legislation, complying with the Commission demands, otherwise the Commission may refer the issue to the ECJ.
