13.2.2010

Official Journal of the European Union

C 37/23

(Case C-503/09)

2010/C 37/28

Language of the case: English

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Lucy Stewart

Defendant: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Questions referred

1.Is a benefit with the characteristics of short-term incapacity benefit in youth a sickness benefit or an invalidity benefit for the purposes of Regulation 1408/71?

2.If the answer to question 1 is that such a benefit is to be treated as a sickness benefit:

(a)Is a person, such as the claimant's mother, who has definitively ceased all employed or self-employed activity by virtue of retirement nevertheless an ‘employed person’ for the purposes of Article 19 by reason of their former employed or self-employed activity, or do Articles 27 to 34 (pensioners) contain the applicable rules?

(b)Is a person, such as the claimant's father, who has not undertaken an employed or self-employed activity since 2001, nevertheless an ‘employed person’ for the purposes of Article 19 by reason of their former employed or self-employed activity?

(c)Is a claimant to be treated as a ‘pensioner’ for the purposes of Article 28 by virtue of the award of a benefit acquired pursuant to Article 95b of Regulation 1408/71, notwithstanding the facts that: (i) the claimant in question has never been an employed person under Article l (a) of Regulation 1408/71; (ii) the claimant has not reached state retirement age; and (iii) the claimant only comes within the personal scope of Regulation 1408/71 as a family member?

(d)Where a pensioner falls within Article 28 of Regulation 1408/71, can a family member of that pensioner who has at all times resided with and in the same State as the pensioner claim, pursuant to Article 28.1, as read with Article 29, a cash sickness benefit from the competent institution determined by Article 28.2 where such benefit is (if due) payable to the family member (and not payable to the pensioner)?

(e)If applicable (by reason of the answers to (a) to (d) above), is the application of a condition of national social security law limiting the initial acquisition of entitlement to a sickness benefit to those having completed a requisite period of past presence within the competent Member State within a defined prior period compatible with the provisions of Articles 19 and/or 28 of Regulation 1408/71?

3.If the answer to question 1 is that such a benefit is to be treated as an invalidity benefit, does the wording in Article 10 of Regulation 1408/71 referring to benefits ‘acquired under the legislation of one or more Member States’ mean that Member States remain entitled under Regulation 1408/71 to set conditions of initial acquisition to such invalidity benefits that are based upon residence in the Member State or upon demonstration of requisite periods of past presence in the Member State, such that a claimant cannot first claim entitlement to such benefit from another Member State?

Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons and their families moving within the Community

OJ L 149, p. 2