Job Seekers Allowance to Au Pair in Germany - EHIC problem

rubyinthesky

So, as an update, my son, then my father, spoke to the EHIC people - they were told, again, that he won't be able to get the EHIC as he's not paid enough 'contributions'. He couldn't get a job in the UK and was fed up, so decided to get off his bum and go and get some life experience and come off JSA for a while. And now, he's being told that he can't get health care.

Poppie68

rubyinthesky wrote: »

So, as an update, my son, then my father, spoke to the EHIC people - they were told, again, that he won't be able to get the EHIC as he's not paid enough 'contributions'. He couldn't get a job in the UK and was fed up, so decided to get off his bum and go and get some life experience and come off JSA for a while. And now, he's being told that he can't get health care.

Do you have the paperwork/bill from the German hospital? If you do it maybe worth taking to your local PCT and asking their advice. They maybe to take it off your hands and sort if for you.
Falling that it maybe worth speaking to the German family and see if they can claim off the private or state health insurance.

rubyinthesky

Thanks Poppie68, that's something I didn't consider. No bill as yet. I assume it will get sent to the German family and they'll get in touch. The hospital are waiting for his EHIC number, which I think he'll get, as he's reapplied for his card and tells me it's on the way. Just that if he gives that number, months down the line he would receive a bill. Sounds strange to me, only I've not had chance to call anyone myself as I was working long hours today and tomorrow. I've asked him to go to the CAB to ask them their advice.

marybelle01

rubyinthesky wrote: »

So, as an update, my son, then my father, spoke to the EHIC people - they were told, again, that he won't be able to get the EHIC as he's not paid enough 'contributions'. He couldn't get a job in the UK and was fed up, so decided to get off his bum and go and get some life experience and come off JSA for a while. And now, he's being told that he can't get health care.

This is definitely not correct! I am a UK citizen - born and bred in the UK. For 30 years I have never paid enough UK contributions to get a single benefit (and not complaining by the way) or pass the habitual residency test even though I own a property in the UK and have nowhere else I could live! But I am FULLY insured as a British citizen, under the recipricol agreements for health care in the European Union. These are based on citizenship rights - not contributions.

Dunroamin

rubyinthesky wrote: »

So, as an update, my son, then my father, spoke to the EHIC people - they were told, again, that he won't be able to get the EHIC as he's not paid enough 'contributions'. He couldn't get a job in the UK and was fed up, so decided to get off his bum and go and get some life experience and come off JSA for a while. And now, he's being told that he can't get health care.

I think you've misunderstood. anyone can have an EHIC, it's nothing to do with paying NICs.

I think that they may have been talking about the old E106 form (they're all called S1 nowadays) which gives people who have worked for two years in the UK the right to reciprocal health care costs for up to two years when living abroad. However, for an au pair working abroad for up to a year, the EHIC is the appropriate form.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/movingabroad/Pages/Workingabroad.aspx

I don't really think that you should be miffed with the authorities as your son seems to have been irresponsible in going abroad without the appropriate healthcare cover.

Poppie68

If your son went through an au pair agency they should of provided him with a contract. and part of the contract which is produced by the Federal Employment Agency states that the host family should provide the au pair with health insurance...
Sorry i am racking my brains here trying to remember info, i lived in Germany for 20 years and worked for the Army healthcare and we used to come across many different scenerios. Au pairs who lived and worked for the British army had to have health insurance and this was paid for by the british host families also.

Poppie68

Give the Overseas Healthcare Team a call on 0191 218 1999. If you get no joy and recieve a bill, try and talk to your local PCT see if they can help.
Good luck

rubyinthesky

Thanks all - I'm still confused He was not classed as an employee abroad, and we believed that the EHIC covered someone from the UK in Germany in the event of needing health treatment, and had no idea that he would need health insurance too.

Unfortunately he didn't use an au pair agency - he went through Au Pair World, where families and au pairs find each other. The mother of the family did say that she felt bad that she hadn't checked out that he had health insurance. I have no idea what will happen, because neither he nor his father and I can afford this bill, if it arrives.

rubyinthesky

Dunroamin wrote: »

I think you've misunderstood. anyone can have an EHIC, it's nothing to do with paying NICs.

I think that they may have been talking about the old E106 form (they're all called S1 nowadays) which gives people who have worked for two years in the UK the right to reciprocal health care costs for up to two years when living abroad. However, for an au pair working abroad for up to a year, the EHIC is the appropriate form.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/movingabroad/Pages/Workingabroad.aspx

I don't really think that you should be miffed with the authorities as your son seems to have been irresponsible in going abroad without the appropriate healthcare cover.

Thanks, but I don't understand - from your link, I think it is indicating that an au pair, in an EU country for less than a year is entitled to an EHIC to cover them, but you say he was irresponsible for not taking out health insurance? He was only in Germany for about 9 weeks? Up until he left, he was claiming JSA?

I also don't really understand as someone on JSA will be entitled to NHS treatment? And unless I'm being totally thick, then I would have thought be entitled to the reciprocal agreement with UK/Germany.

Dunroamin

rubyinthesky wrote: »

Thanks, but I don't understand - from your link, I think it is indicating that an au pair, in an EU country for less than a year is entitled to an EHIC to cover them, but you say he was irresponsible for not taking out health insurance? He was only in Germany for about 9 weeks? Up until he left, he was claiming JSA?

I also don't really understand as someone on JSA will be entitled to NHS treatment? And unless I'm being totally thick, then I would have thought be entitled to the reciprocal agreement with UK/Germany.

But he didn't have an EHIC, did he?

Anyway, reciprocal health care doesn't mean that you get healthcare covered as it is in your own country but you 're covered in the same way as a native of the country you visit. I don't know anything about the system in Germany but many EU countries don't cover all healthcare costs (as an example, France covers 70%) and you need to take out insurance to cover the difference.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx