Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to waive the habitual residency test for jobseeker's allowance claimants when the claimant has lived abroad because of a parent being posted as a memember of the armed forces; and if he will make a statement.

It has always been the case that any UK national who has left the country for an extended period must satisfy the habitual residence test.

We are aware of concerns raised about the impact on returning UK nationals and are in the process of amending regulations to exempt from the three month residence requirement, members of the armed forces who have been posted abroad, Crown servants who have been posted abroad and others who had paid certain types of UK national insurance contributions during their absence abroad.