DWP clarifies EEA/Swiss rules for PIP, DLA and Carer’s
From 10 December 2025, the Department for Work and Pensions brings into force the Social Security (Residence in an EEA State or Switzerland) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1198). Made on 17 November and laid before Parliament on 18 November, the instrument is signed by Minister of State Stephen Timms and applies in England and Wales. In simple terms, it confirms who can keep being paid certain UK disability and caring benefits while living in the EEA or Switzerland.
Here is the test in everyday language. If an EU social security coordination rule applied to you on 31 December 2020 and you have been paid without a break since that date, you can continue to receive either Carer’s Allowance, the care component of Disability Living Allowance, or the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment while abroad in an EEA state or Switzerland. It is a confirmation of export rights for a specific, protected group.
When the regulations say a “relevant EU Regulation”, they mean the social security coordination framework set out in Regulation 883/2004 and its implementing Regulation 987/2009, which the UK applied up to the end of the transition period. Those rules decide which country’s system pays what when people move between states.
Two conditions must both be met. First, continuous receipt means your award has run on and from 31 December 2020 without gaps. Second, you must not have been habitually resident in the UK on or after that date. Habitual residence is the legal way of saying where your life is mainly based – it looks at things like where you live, how long you have been there and whether you intended to settle, rather than short visits.
Why now? The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and its parallel deals with EEA EFTA states and Switzerland preserved social security coordination for people already in a cross‑border situation at the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. This amendment writes that protection clearly into the domestic rules for the three benefits named above.
It is equally important to know what this change does not do. It does not open the door to new claims from abroad. The Department for Work and Pensions is explicit that this is a legislative basis to keep paying existing awards only; if you started receiving one of these benefits after 31 December 2020 while living overseas, this instrument does not create a new entitlement.
Let’s make it concrete. You moved to France in 2019, and you were already getting the PIP daily living component on 31 December 2020. You have remained in France since and there have been no breaks in your award. Under the new regulation you remain within scope and your payments can continue.
Another example. You live in Spain and were receiving Carer’s Allowance on 31 December 2020. In 2022 you returned to the UK for several months, took a tenancy and registered with a GP with the intention of staying. That period could make you habitually resident in the UK after the cut‑off date, which would take you out of this protected route.
Or imagine you moved to Germany in 2021 and then made a first claim for DLA care from abroad. These regulations will not help with a brand‑new claim started after the transition ended; they are about maintaining payments that were already in place on 31 December 2020.
One more piece of context. In November 2024 the UK removed an extra “genuine and sufficient link to the UK” wording from some export rules for PIP and DLA, to reduce uncertainty. Today’s amendment sits alongside that earlier tidy‑up and focuses specifically on the EEA/Swiss cohort protected at the end of 2020.
A note on Scotland, because you will see different benefit names there. Personal Independence Payment has been replaced by Adult Disability Payment, and by August 2025 the transfer of PIP cases to Social Security Scotland was reported as complete. Disability Living Allowance for children has also been replaced by Child Disability Payment. The change we’re explaining here is a DWP instrument for England and Wales, but the wider protections at the end of 2020 also apply through the UK’s international agreements.
What this means for you: if you live in the EEA or Switzerland and were in scope on 31 December 2020, keep your paperwork together, watch for DWP letters, and ask a welfare adviser if your award ever paused. For most people who meet the tests, this rule simply gives legal certainty to payments they have been receiving all along.