Habitual residency test?

Hi everyone

My husband and I have been planning our move back to the UK for a while now however I have just found out that I am pregnant which was a bit of a shock (a good one of course!) We are due to move in 5 weeks and my GP here advised that I contact the hospital in my catchment area (i know roughly where we will be living). I called them the other day and explained that we were British Citizens who had been living out here for 7 years but that we were moving back permanently. She put me through to the hospital's overseas team who basically inferred that I would have to pass a Habitual Residency Test otherwise I wouldn't be able to have my baby on the NHS. Neither my husband and I have jobs to come back to as we were planning on securing them once we landed so I can't show the hospital any job offer letters. Although I can of course show them the one way tickets, the fact that we have family there and evidence that we are cutting all ties with Australia.

Does anyone have any experience of this and any advice as to what I need to do / say when I get back?

Thanks!

It won't be difficult. Have a read of this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/coming-from-abroad-and-claiming-benefits-the-habitual-residence-test/the-habitual-residence-test-an-introduction/what-is-the-habitual-residence-test/

Register with a GP when you get back and go from there. Most of the early care in pregnancy can be done via a community midwife attached to your local GP practice. Once you are in the system it'll be pretty straightforward.

I am in the same position. Born in the U.K. & are returning to live there indefinitely after 8 years here. Have continued to pay National Insurance contributions the whole time we have been here.

I will be 16 weeks pregnant when we return. I called a couple of GP surgeries & was told I would need to provide proof of permanent address, e.g utility bill before I could register. Didn't care that I was pregnant & need monitoring as developed pre eclampsia in my last pregnancy.

We have a holiday rental booked for a month when we return & will be looking for a long-term rental. I panicked a bit & emailed another surgery explaining my situation. I got a reply saying I can attend the surgery & use our temporary rental address in the short term, so we'll see how that goes....

In the meantime I have found a private scanning place & booked a scan for some peace of mind before I get into the NHS system.

I have had a look at the habitual residency test & it seems we need to prove we intend to remain there but it's a bit wooly on how to do that initially. Good luck!

A bit more as I have some time now. In all honesty, if you are not trying to claim some type of benefit (ie income support) the habitual residency is perhaps not going to be such a big thing. Yes you will be a returning resident and citizen and so perhaps may face the habitual residence test for claiming benefits but in other aspects you should be able to register, access and make use of things if you are have moved back and living back there permanently.

Registering with a GP for medical care should be straightforward. Some do require proof of address to register you these days, (demand on places, having a catchment area they cover and other things). Some won't and will be a little more flexible. Shop around and find one with a midwife or two working out of it

Once you are registered with a GP you should be fine to have a booking in appointment with a midwife and get into the system. As I said, many GP practices have a MW attached who works in the community and sees ladies who are pregnant and who are registered to the practice. They will be the one to deal with you for most of your pregnancy apart from scans and if needing consultant or hospital care/treatment for some reason. By the time you are due to give birth you'd have been back in the UK a fair while (assuming as you've just found out are not more than 12 weeks along yet?) and would be by then considered habitually resident I would expect.

Your GP here in Aus perhaps doesn't know how the system works in the UK and generally many women don't go via the hospitals for their pregnancy management, its often done in the community. I'd focus on using the community facilities and if you need to be referred for anything pregnancy related to the hospital they will do that and chances are no one is going to questions a referral from your GP or MW for a pregnancy related hospital appointment for someone who is in the system having registered with a GP and midwife. I think calling the hospital direct you've probably heard the scenario faced by some who move to the UK or who are not British citizens returning and as you called them in the first instance you heard their hospital policy going direct.

Try not to panic. I'd ensure you have funds in a UK bank account if possible that can be updated even with a temp UK address on your return, register on your electoral roll asap, change your drivers licence over to a UK card one with a new address and other things like that. Those things can all help show you are back and staying.

We moved back in March and there was no issue at all with NHS treatment. In fact I had hospital treatment within a matter of weeks of being back. We registered with a GP immediately - I needed a a prescription and had it immediately.

It it is only an issue for social security benefits, which effectively means you need to have been in the UK for three months.

I totally agree with what has been said, it is a very simple thing to register with a GP and ours at least didn't require utilities bills etc. You will absolutely 100% be able to have your baby on the NHS.

Not really adding anything here but my son and I moved back both with chronic health conditions, my son's rheumatologist in Perth referred him directly to an NHS specialist (it's a rare condition so getting the right person was critical) and gave me a copy of the letter. I must admit I thought it wasn't going to be that easy but a week or so after moving back I registered with a GP (the same one we'd been with before moving away 5 years earlier which possibly helped) and told him about the referral. His response was that he had never heard of the condition (so thank god he wasn't our GP when my son started showing symptoms!) and that the direct referral should be fine but to phone the specialist up - I nervously did and found to my amazement that my son was on her waiting list - she asked if it was urgent (it wasn't) and she said we'd get an appointment within 12 weeks, which we did.

For myself my GP referred me straight away to a rheumatologist and podiatrist, again no problem within our first month back.

If you didn't have a permanent UK address and still owned a house in Australia it would be different but the 'habitual residency test' - not that it really is a test more a set of guidelines - can be 'passed' on the day you arrive back. We got Child Benefit immediately as well - I think it helped we had claimed it in the UK before as my son was already 'in the system'.

If you didn't have a permanent UK address and still owned a house in Australia it would be different but the 'habitual residency test' - not that it really is a test more a set of guidelines - can be 'passed' on the day you arrive back. We got Child Benefit immediately as well - I think it helped we had claimed it in the UK before as my son was already 'in the system'.

We still owned our house in Oz when we got full NHS cover and even when we claimed Jobseekers Allowance for a few weeks until we moved to Scotland. We declared the house and informed them it was being sold and that was fine.

I am in the same position. Born in the U.K. & are returning to live there indefinitely after 8 years here. Have continued to pay National Insurance contributions the whole time we have been here.

I will be 16 weeks pregnant when we return. I called a couple of GP surgeries & was told I would need to provide proof of permanent address, e.g utility bill before I could register. Didn't care that I was pregnant & need monitoring as developed pre eclampsia in my last pregnancy.

We have a holiday rental booked for a month when we return & will be looking for a long-term rental. I panicked a bit & emailed another surgery explaining my situation. I got a reply saying I can attend the surgery & use our temporary rental address in the short term, so we'll see how that goes....

In the meantime I have found a private scanning place & booked a scan for some peace of mind before I get into the NHS system.

I have had a look at the habitual residency test & it seems we need to prove we intend to remain there but it's a bit wooly on how to do that initially. Good luck!

Thanks-and good luck too!

I am actually still registered with a GP surgery from years ago (never actually told them I had moved to Oz as at the time I left the UK I didn't know how long it would be for - hope I'm not penalised for this when I return!!)

It's a bit of a worry but hopefully it will be ok.

Thanks for the responses, really helpful. So it sounds like hopefully it won't be too much of an issue, I guess I wouldn't be so panicked about the timeframe if it wasn't that I was pregnant!

Was it difficult to claim job seekers allowance? The thought hadn't really crossed my mind but since we will both be coming back without jobs then it might be worth trying to claim...?

Was it difficult to claim job seekers allowance? The thought hadn't really crossed my mind but since we will both be coming back without jobs then it might be worth trying to claim...?

You won't be able to initially. That is where the habitual residence test will come in.

You would hopefully have found jobs by the time the months of residence have passed and you could lodge a claim.

ETA - Read the CAB link I posted as it explains it all well.

Was it difficult to claim job seekers allowance? The thought hadn't really crossed my mind but since we will both be coming back without jobs then it might be worth trying to claim...?

You need to be resident for 3 months in order to apply.

It is also means tested so you'd need to be coming back pretty broke to qualify - I

think its less than £15k in savings - if after selling cars/house etc you have less than that and you don't have a job to come to I would be thinking twice about moving unless you really have to.

Over £16k in savings you'd get nothing, between £6-16k you get something, less than £6k JSA is not affected.

This is for income based JSA (what used to be called Income Support), contribution based is not affected by savings (what used to be Unrmployment benefit) but it's very unlikely a returning migrant would qualify unless there salary was paid in the Uk

In 2001 we returned to the uk and registered with a GP with no questions etc

Habitual residency kicked in when we applied for a rates rebate based on our income which was an Australian disability pension

After a long protracted interview we were refused habitual resident status but I appealed and it was eventually overturned

We came back from Melbourne when my partner was 26 weeks and we had no issues