If you move or travel overseas, you will not automatically receive benefits from the UK. Entitlement will depend on whether your stay abroad is temporary or permanent. You can continue to claim some benefits while you are abroad.
You must let your Social Security/Jobs and Benefits office know that you are going abroad. If it is only a temporary move, then give the date you are planning to come back.
Your entitlement to benefits abroad also depends on which country you are going to. If you are going to an EEA country or one with an arrangement with the UK, you might get extra UK-based benefits. Or, you might be able to get a benefit which that country provides.
For most benefits provided by other countries under these arrangements, you will have to have paid National Insurance (NI) contributions in the UK. Form E301 is a record of UK National Insurance contributions which may help a claim for unemployment benefit in another EU country. You can download an application form for this and other related forms using the link below.
You can claim these payments in certain circumstances. To qualify, you must have been entitled to the payment when you were living in the UK. You must be moving or have moved to another EEA country, Switzerland or Gibraltar.
Information about contribution-and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance if moving or living abroad.
You cannot usually get contribution-based JSA outside the EEA. However, you may be able to get contribution-based JSA in the EEA for up to three months if you:
If you are going abroad permanently you cannot get income-based JSA.
You cannot usually get income-based JSA if your stay abroad is only temporary.
Check with your local Social Security/Jobs and Benefits office if you need to fill in any forms before you go abroad.
If you work for a UK employer in the EEA, you will usually be able to get SMP if you qualify under the general rules. If you work outside the EEA you may be able to get SMP if your employer pays NI contributions for you.
If you work for a UK employer in the EEA, you will usually be able to get SSP. You will get this as long as you qualify under the general rules. To qualify if you work outside the EEA, your employer will need to be paying NI contributions for you.
The European Court of Justice decided on October 2007 that certain disability and carers benefits are sickness benefits and may be paid, in certain circumstances, to people who leave the United Kingdom to live elsewhere in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland. The decision affects:
The mobility component of Disability Living Allowance has not been affected by this judgement.
For more information about this decision see 'Disability benefits and the European Economic Area and Switzerland'.
Money, tax and benefits