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Brexit: Why some Brits in Austria are losing benefit payments

Benefit payments for some British citizens living in Austria have been suspended while they wait for the new Article 50 (A50) EUV Card – a move which is not in line with the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 February 2021 10:38 CET
Updated: 27 February 2021 11:23 CET

Brexit: Why some Brits in Austria are losing benefit payments

Is the sun setting on some British people's benefits in Austria? Photo: OLI SCARFF / AFP

The Local Austria has been contacted by Brits who have recently been informed they will no longer receive benefits, such as Arbeitslosgeld (unemployment benefit) and Kinderbetreeungsgeld (childcare benefit), until they have the A50 card.

British citizens that were already living in Austria before 31st December 2020 (the Brexit transition deadline) have until the end of the year to apply for the A50 card so that their rights are protected by the Withdrawal Agreement.

A British woman living in Innsbruck, Tyrol, who asked not to be identified, said her childcare benefit payments have been suspended. Other British people have not been able to apply for unemployment benefits.

READ: How Britons can move to Austria to live and work post-Brexit

She said: “Other people affected don’t have appointments to apply for the Article 50 Card until late March so may be without funds until April or May.”

Another woman posted in the UK in Austria – British Embassy Vienna Facebook group and said her childcare benefits have been suspended because she doesn’t have the A50 Card yet. Despite living in Austria for 30 years.

She says she was informed about the suspension two days before the expected payment and has been asked to show proof that she is legally allowed to live in Austria.

Since the start of the year, some British citizens have been experiencing delays in booking the initial appointment to apply for the A50 card, as reported by The Local last month.

But the British Embassy has confirmed that the suspension of benefit payments goes against the Withdrawal Agreement.

British Ambassador to Austria Leigh Turner told The Local: “We are aware of reports of UK nationals in Austria being informed that they will no longer receive benefits until they have the Article 50 card. That is not in line with commitments made in the Withdrawal Agreement.

“We have reached out to the Austrian government for clarification and the government has confirmed that until 31 December 2021 access to benefits is not dependent on having applied for or received the Article 50 card.

“The relevant ministry is now contacting authorities to ensure that they are aware of this.”

Ambassador Turner confirmed that from 1 January 2022, UK nationals will need an A50 card (or other valid residence document) to have the same access to Austrian benefits as EU nationals.

He added: “I encourage all UK nationals in Austria to contact their Bezirkshauptmannschaft or Magistrat and apply for an Article 50 card as soon as possible.”

Mike Bailey from British in Austria, a platform for British citizens living in Austria, said they are aware of the situation, which is being exacerbated by ongoing coronavirus restrictions.

He said: “Unfortunately, regional offices for benefits have not been informed that the requirement to have the Article 50 EUV card to continue to receive benefits in a comparable manner to citizens of other EU Member States only comes in at the end of 2021.

“The issue was probably accentuated further by the national lockdown, which meant that Article 50 EUV card appointments have not always been possible at the earliest opportunity in every Bezirk.

“We are very grateful that the British Embassy has taken up contact with the Ministry (Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection), and that the Ministry in turn is ensuring that the respective bodies are made aware of this particular situation and how it should be handled.”

British in Austria has been publishing information about the application process for the A50 card and reaching out to British citizens on social media. There is also a detailed FAQ page dedicated to benefit payments on their website.

Mike added: “For those affected, it has brought extra unnecessary strain at an already difficult time.”

Any British citizens in Austria experiencing issues with their A50 card application, or with receiving benefits, are encouraged to contact the consular team at the British Embassy.

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With the German far right coming out on top in two state elections earlier this month, the socialist-led national Berlin government has reimposed border controls on Western frontiers that are supposed to see freedom of movement in the European Union’s Schengen zone.

The Netherlands government, which includes the party of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, announced on Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from EU rules on asylum, with Prime Minister Dick Schoof declaring that there was an asylum “crisis”.

Meanwhile, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-wing Labour Party paid a visit to Rome for talks with Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, to discuss the strategies used by Italy in seeking to reduce migration.

Far-right parties performed strongly in June European elections, coming out on top in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections which resulted in right-winger Michel Barnier, who has previously called for a moratorium on migration, being named prime minister.

We are witnessing the “continuation of a rightward shift in migration policies in the European Union,” said Jerome Vignon, migration advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute think-tank.

It reflected the rise of far-right parties in the European elections in June, and more recently in the two regional elections in Germany, he said, referring to a “quite clearly protectionist and conservative trend”.

Strong message

“Anti-immigration positions that were previously the preserve of the extreme right are now contaminating centre-right parties, even centre-left parties like the Social Democrats” in Germany, added Florian Trauner, a migration specialist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking university in Brussels.

While the Labour government in London has ditched its right-wing Conservative predecessor administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, there is clearly interest in a deal Italy has struck with Albania to detain and process migrants there.

Within the European Union, Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian applicants, while laws have appeared authorising pushbacks at the border in Finland and Lithuania.

Under the pretext of dealing with “emergency” or “crisis” situations, the list of exemptions and deviations from the common rules defined by the European Union continues to grow.

All this flies in the face of the new EU migration pact, agreed only in May and coming into force in 2026.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Mannheim and most recently Solingen blamed on radical Islamists, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also expelled 28 Afghans back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Such gestures from Germany are all the more symbolic given how the country since World War II has tried to turn itself into a model of integration, taking in a million refugees, mainly Syrians in 2015-2016 and then more than a million Ukrainian exiles since the Russian invasion.

Germany is sending a “strong message” to its own public as well as to its European partners, said Trauner.

The migratory pressure “remains significant” with more than 500,000 asylum applications registered in the European Union for the first six months of the year, he said.

‘Climate on impunity’

Germany, which received about a quarter of them alone, criticises the countries of southern Europe for allowing migrants to circulate without processing their asylum applications, but southern states denounce a lack of solidarity of the rest of Europe.

The moves by Germany were condemned by EU allies including Greece and Poland, but Scholz received the perhaps unwelcome accolade of praise from Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Moscow’s closest friend in the European Union, when he declared “welcome to the club”.

The EU Commission’s failure to hold countries to account “only fosters a climate of impunity where unilateral migration policies and practices can proliferate,” said Adriana Tidona, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher.

But behind the rhetoric, all European states are also aware of the crucial role played by migrants in keeping sectors going including transport and healthcare, as well as the importance of attracting skilled labour.

“Behind the symbolic speeches, European leaders, particularly German ones, remain pragmatic: border controls are targeted,” said Sophie Meiners, a migration researcher with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Even Meloni’s government has allowed the entry into Italy of 452,000 foreign workers for the period 2023-2025.

“In parallel to this kind of new restrictive measures, they know they need to address skilled labour needs,” she said.