Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Social security for migrant workers ° Community provisions ° Scope ratione materiae ° Benefits paid to elderly residents of an amount varying according to their resources ° Inclusion as an old-age benefit where the benefit is paid to a person who was subject as a worker to the legislation of the State granting the benefit under whose legislation that person already receives a pension

(EEC Treaty, Art. 51; Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 4)

2. Social security for migrant workers ° Old-age and death insurance ° Benefits ° Benefit securing for recipients supplementary resources of an amount equal to the difference between the minimum resources guaranteed by law and part of their resources of any kind ° Adjustment in the event of an increase in a foreign pension ° Recalculation

(Council Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 46 and 51)

Summary

1. As regards an employed person or assimilated worker who has completed periods of employment in a Member State, resides in that State and is entitled to a pension there, legislative provisions in that State giving all elderly residents a legally protected right to a minimum pension come within the field of social security covered by Article 51 of the Treaty, even where such legislation might fall outside this classification as regards other categories of recipients.

Benefits granted to elderly residents whose resources do not reach the minimum guaranteed by the law and which guarantee to their recipients supplementary resources of an amount equal to the difference between that minimum and part of the resources of any kind available to them must therefore be regarded as "old-age benefits" within the meaning of Regulation No 1408/71.

2. The provisions of Article 51(1) of Regulation 1408/71, according to which a recalculation of benefits in accordance with Article 46 of the regulation should not be carried out where the alteration which affects one of the benefits results from events unconnected with the worker' s personal circumstances and is the consequence of the evolution of the economic and social situation, cannot be applied to an old-age benefit which, whilst aiming to secure a minimum income for its recipients, is of a differential nature and whose amount varies, by its nature, in accordance with the evolution of the amount of the guaranteed minimum income, which is regularly re-assessed, and the resources of the person concerned.

The result of the application of that provision would be, on the one hand, that the increase of the resources of the person concerned resulting from the increase in a pension paid to him by virtue of rights acquired in another Member State would not be taken into account and that he would systematically receive an amount of resources exceeding the minimum income guaranteed by law and, on the other, that it would not merely put the migrant worker at an advantage but would alter the purpose of the benefit and disrupt the scheme of the national legislation.

Consequently, the provisions of Article 51(2) should be applied to the determination and adjustment of the amount of a benefit designed to secure a guaranteed minimum income paid to a worker who has been in employment in a Member State, resides in that State and receives a retirement pension from that State and a retirement pension from another Member State. As a result of the application of that provision, the benefit should be recalculated in the event of an alteration of the amount of the guaranteed income or of the recipient' s resources.