TFC06350 - Residence rules: temporary absence from the UK – general rules

Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015, regulation 6(1)

Providing a person is ordinarily resident in the UK, and their temporary absence is not expected to exceed and does not exceed 8 weeks, they will be treated as being in the UK during this period.

A person is immediately treated as not being in the UK if they expect their absence to be over 8 weeks. However, if a person unexpectedly extends their stay during their absence from the UK, they will be treated as not being in the UK from the point they realise that their absence will be longer than 8 weeks (this can be at any time within the initial 8-week period).

Beyond 8 weeks, a person is treated as being in the UK providing the absence does not exceed 6 months and is solely in connection with:

Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015, regulation 6(4)

The person is a mariner or a continental shelf worker who is in a designated or prescribed area, or;

Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015, regulation 6(2)

The person undergoing treatment for an illness or physical or mental impairment by, or under the supervision of, a qualified practitioner or the person accompanying the person’s partner or a child for whom the person is responsible for the treatment, or;

Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015, regulation 6(3)

The death of the person’s partner or a child for whom the person was responsible, a close relative of the person or their partner, or a close relative of a child for whom the person or their partner is responsible, or;

For this extension to 6 months to apply, however, the absence, or its extension, must be in connection with the death or with the treatment of an illness or physical or mental impairment. It is not enough for the two things simply to coincide.

Example:

Luke is on holiday and spends a few days of that holiday with his relative James who happens to be receiving treatment for an illness. Luke is not entitled to the extension unless the reason he stayed away for more than eight weeks was because he was visiting James, and the reason he visited James was because James was receiving treatment.