Vincent Offermanns and Esther Offermanns.
Date: 2001-03-15
26 It should be stressed at the outset that the fact that the Austrian Government has not specified the UVG in a declaration pursuant to Article 5 of Regulation No 1408/71 as a scheme referred to in Article 4(1) and (2) of that regulation, is not of itself proof that the UVG does not fall within the scope of that regulation (see, in particular, Case 35/77 Beerens [1977] ECR 2249, paragraph 9).
27 Moreover, as the Austrian Government and the Commission have pointed out, the Court has repeatedly held that the distinction between benefits excluded from the scope of Regulation No 1408/71 and those falling within its scope is based essentially on the constituent elements of each particular benefit, in particular its purposes and the conditions on which it is granted (see, in particular, Case C-78/91 Hughes [1992] ECR I-4839, paragraph 14, and Joined Cases C-245/94 and C-312/94 Hoever and Zachow [1996] ECR I-4895, paragraph 17).
28 The Court has consistently stated that a benefit can be regarded as a social security benefit only if, first, it is granted, without any individual and discretionary assessment of personal needs, to recipients on the basis of a legally defined position and, second, it relates to one of the risks expressly listed in Article 4(1) of Regulation No 1408/71 (see, in this regard, Case 249/83 Hoeckx [1985] ECR 973, paragraphs 12 to 14, and Hughes, cited above, paragraph 15).
37 As regards the legal nature of a benefit such as that in question here, the way in which it is classified under domestic law is not determinative in assessing whether or not it is covered by Regulation No 1408/71 (see Hughes, paragraph 14, and Hoever and Zachow, paragraph 17). It follows that the fact that a benefit is governed by the family law of a Member State is not decisive in evaluating its constituent elements.
38 In analysing the constituent elements of the benefit, it must be recalled that, according to Article 1(u)(i) of Regulation No 1408/71, family benefits means all benefits in kind or in cash intended to meet family expenses. In this regard, the Court has held that family benefits are intended to provide social assistance for workers with dependent families in the form of a contribution by society towards their expenses (see Case 104/84 Kromhout [1985] ECR 2205, paragraph 14).
39 Thus, the Court has held that a child-raising allowance intended to enable one of the parents to devote himself or herself to the raising of a young child and, more particularly, to remunerate the service of bringing up a child, to meet other costs of caring for and bringing up a child and, as the case may be, to mitigate the financial disadvantages entailed in giving up income from full-time employment had the aim of meeting family expenses within the meaning of Article 1(u)(i) of Regulation No 1408/71 (see Hoever and Zachow, cited above, paragraphs 23 and 25).
41 It follows that the expression to meet family expenses in Article 1(u)(i) of Regulation No 1408/71 is to be interpreted as referring, in particular, to a public contribution to a family's budget to alleviate the financial burdens involved in the maintenance (Unterhalt) of children.
46 Moreover, as the Court has already held, the method by which a benefit is financed does not affect its classification as a social security benefit (see, in this regard, Hughes, cited above, paragraph 21). It does not matter by what legal mechanism the Member State implements the benefit. Consequently, the fact that, as in the present case, the public contribution takes the form of advances on maintenance paid by a public fund in the place of the defaulting debtor is of no consequence.
49 The answer to the first question referred for a preliminary ruling must therefore be that a benefit such as the advances on maintenance payments provided for by the UVG constitutes a family benefit within the meaning of Article 4(1)(h) of Regulation No 1408/71. Consequently, persons residing in the territory of a Member State to which the provisions of that regulation apply are entitled, in accordance with Article 3 of that regulation, to receive such a benefit under the legislation of that Member State on the same conditions as that State's nationals.
The second question