Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:698
Date: 2000-12-14
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social security for migrant workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Social security for migrant workers — Community rutes — Material scope — 
Benefits included and benefits excluded — Distinguishing criteria — Benefits under 
a national social security scheme covering the risk of reliance on care — Included as a 
sickness benefit 
(Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 4(l)(a)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-215/99 
2. Social security for migrant workers — Sickness insurance — National social security 
scheme covering the risk of reliance on care — Sickness benefits in cash — Condition 
that the insured person reside in the territory of the Member State where he is 
insured — Not permissible 
(Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 19(1)) 
1. A benefit may be regarded as a social 
security benefit in so far as it is granted, 
without any individual and discretion­
ary assessment of personal needs, to 
recipients on the basis of a legally 
defined position and relates to one of 
the risks expressly listed in Article 4(1) 
of Regulation No 1408/71. That is the 
case with a care allowance which is 
granted objectively on the basis of a 
legally defined situation. Such benefits 
are essentially intended to supplement 
sickness insurance benefits, to which 
they are, moreover, linked at the orga­
nisational level, in order to improve the 
state of health and quality of life of 
persons reliant on care. In those cir­
cumstances, even if they have their own 
characteristics, such benefits must be 
regarded as 'sickness benefits' within 
the meaning of Article 4(1)(a) of Reg­
ulation No 1408/71. 
(see paras 25-26, 28) 
2. Article 19( l ) (b) of Regulat ion 
No 1408/71 and the corresponding 
provisions of the other sections of 
Chapter 1 of Title III of that regulation 
preclude entitlement to a care allow­
ance under the legislation of a Member 
State, which is to be regarded as a 
sickness benefit in cash, from being 
subject to the condition that the person 
reliant on care must be habitually 
resident in that State. 
In accordance with those provisions, 
the care allowance, which is to be 
regarded as a sickness benefit in cash, 
must be provided irrespective of the 
Member State in which a person reliant 
on care, who satisfies the other condi­
tions for receipt of the benefit, is 
resident. 
(see paras 35-36 and operative part) 
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