Vera A. Partridge v Adjudication Officer.
Date: 1998-06-11
24 The Social Security Commissioner went on to note that if Mrs Partridge had been awarded AA and then left the United Kingdom before 1 June 1992, the date on which Regulation No 1247/92 entered into force, she could, in accordance with Article 10 of Regulation No 1408/71, have continued to receive that allowance.  In the light of the case-law of the Court of Justice (see, to that effect, Case C-356/89 Newton v Chief Adjudication Officer [1991] ECR I-3017), Point 11 of Section L of Annex VI to Regulation No 1408/71, and the declaration made by the United Kingdom under Article 5 of Regulation No 1408/71, which includes that benefit among the schemes referred to in Article 4(1) thereof, AA was at the time recognised as an invalidity benefit within the meaning of Article 4(1) of Regulation No 1408/71.
30 Next, under Article 10a of Regulation No 1408/71, as amended by Regulation No 1247/92, persons to whom that regulation applies are entitled to the special non-contributory cash benefits referred to in Article 4(2a) in accordance with the coordination rules set out therein, provided that such benefits are listed in Annex IIa.  That is the case with regard to AA, which is mentioned under Point (d) of Section L (United Kingdom) of that annex.
31 The fact that the Community legislature refers, in Annex IIa to Regulation No 1408/71, to legislation such as that relating to AA must be accepted as establishing that benefits granted pursuant to that legislation are special non-contributory benefits falling within the scope of Article 10a of Regulation No 1408/71 (see, in particular, to that effect, Snares, paragraph 30).
32 Furthermore, the wording of Article 10a implies that the benefits to which it refers also come within Article 4(2a) of Regulation No 1408/71, as amended by Regulation No 1247/92 (Snares, paragraph 31).
33 In those circumstances, a benefit such as AA is, by reason of the fact that it is listed in Annex IIa, governed by the coordination rules of Article 10a and is consequently a special non-contributory benefit within the meaning of Article 4(2a) (see, to this effect, Snares, paragraph 32).
34 That interpretation is borne out by the third, fourth, fifth and sixth recitals in the preamble to Regulation No 1247/92, from which it is clear that the intention of the legislature was to provide a specific system of coordination taking account of the special characteristics of certain benefits falling simultaneously within the categories of both social assistance and social security and treated, according to the Court's case-law, as social security benefits as regards workers already covered by the social security scheme of the State whose legislation is relied on (see, in particular, Newton and Snares).  As the Advocate General has stated at point 24 of his Opinion, a benefit such as AA is indeed a benefit of that kind.
35 Furthermore, the fact that the United Kingdom has not made a declaration under Article 5 of Regulation No 1408/71, as amended by Regulation No 1247/92, in so far as it provides that Member States are to specify the special non-contributory benefits covered by Article 4(2a), does not preclude AA from being classified as a special non-contributory benefit within the meaning of the latter provision (see, to that effect, Snares, paragraph 34).
36 As the Court pointed out in paragraph 35 of its judgment in Snares, the fact that rules have not been mentioned in the declaration made by a Member State is not conclusive in this regard and is therefore not of itself proof that those rules do not come within the scope of the provision in question.
39 It should be noted in this connection that, according to Article 2 of Regulation No 1247/92, that regulation does not affect the maintenance of rights of individuals who, before that regulation entered into force, were already in receipt of the benefit (Article 2(1)) or satisfied the conditions for receiving it (Article 2(2)).  Consequently, while Point 11 of Section L of Annex VI to Regulation No 1408/71 applies to persons who were already in receipt of AA, or who satisfied the conditions governing its award before the date on which Regulation No 1247/92 entered into force, and who, as such, may continue to rely on the principle of waiver of residence clauses laid down in Article 10 of Regulation No 1408/71, that annex none the less does not prevent the situation of persons satisfying the conditions for entitlement to AA as from 1 June 1992 from being governed, as is clear from the present judgment, by Article 10a of Regulation No 1408/71.