Foreign Perspectives

Although we’ve been quite busy trying to get settled back into life in the UK in the last month or so we’ve not been able to say much about it thanks to a lack of broadband access until today so there’s a heap of catching up to be done on the blog!

One of the more taxing aspects has proved to be the business of getting us back into the health system.

We figured that this would be really simple as we already had national health numbers and were going to be signing up with the same doctor as we’d had five years ago but it wasn’t quite so simple as that as it turned out and we’ve still not quite completed the formalities even after a month of trying!

Getting treated is very easy and we’ve been catching up with missed vaccinations for the kids and suchlike over the last month. However, the business of actually registering with the doctor was where the problems started. To begin with we started off with the normal forms for re-registering all of us except John who was born in France and therefore hadn’t been registered here before. It turns out that in fact since we’d all been living overseas we all had to fill in the form we’d initially put him on and also to provide birth certificates for everyone as well which is fair enough in some ways as an ID requirement.

Completing the “from overseas” forms wasn’t quite so simple though. For one thing, if you’re not currently paying National Insurance contributions (which we aren’t) then you need to be claiming Job Seekers Allowance so that in turn meant a trip to the local Job Seekers office to sign on for that. One complication with that is that I don’t think I’m entitled to Job Seekers Allowance as I’m on a career break but I’ll see about that when I finally get the interview for it this Friday.

A week or so later we received an “interesting” phone call from the Central Services Agency (CSA) who are the people who deal with the back office handling of putting you on the register for the doctor. Despite me writing on the form that Wendy (Australian) didn’t need a visa or work permit because she was entitled to a European Residence Permit, they phoned up asking for the visa and work permit to be sent. Seeing as we don’t need them and can’t get them for her (because we can’t be required to have them) they were a bit put out and had to call us back after checking with their supervisor. That second conversation was even more interesting as it was obvious that they haven’t a clue how they are legally required to assess the right of residence for anyone in even the simplest of cases…

1. If you’re French they register you with no further proof than your passport. Actually, the French (along with all other Europeans except the Irish) need to have a job (or to get one within three months) to gain a right of residence (excluding special cases).
2. If you’re Bulgarian they require all kinds of documents. In fact, as of January 2008 they are required to treat Bulgarians in the same way as other Europeans (except the Irish).
3. If you’re not European they require a visa and work permit. Well, normally that would be the case but seeing as Wendy and I have been together for quite a few years now she’s entitled to a European Residence Permit and had one when we were here last time. With said permit they are required to treat her as though she were British and had always been British and are therefore required to register her for medical care. Actually, since we were last here we found out that although she’s eligible for that permit she’s not required to get it but the authorities are required to treat her as though she did have it.

Why “except the Irish”? Well, the UK and Ireland are in what’s called the Common Travel Area which means that there’s no passport control between the two countries and that citizens of either have the right to move to the other (with or without working). That predates the formation of Europe by many decades and means that Irish citizens must be treated differently than other Europeans in many respects notably the absence of a requirement to have work to enable them to live in the UK.

Slightly separately from that, courtesy of the Good Friday Agreement most Northern Ireland people (it’s defined in a peculiar way but basically means anyone that’s British or Irish and has been born in Northern Ireland) have the right to be treated as British or Irish or both as and when they choose. Apparently the CSA aren’t aware that I can insist on them treating me as Irish exclusively should I wish to do so and for the purposes of Wendy’s eligibility for the European Residence Permit I need to be able to require people to treat me as Irish.

However, the most laughable comments were when I said that she had these rights courtesy of Freedom of Movement legislation… in their mind that was freedom to move around Europe, not actually to stay anywhere. In fact, the whole point of the freedom of movement legislation was to allow people to move around and live anywhere they wanted to in Europe. She then went on to say that European law didn’t apply in Northern Ireland. That was on a day when the farmers were queuing up to claim their European payments which are obviously issued under European law!

We’re still waiting to hear back from them.