A benefit may be regarded as a social security benefit if it is granted, without any individual and discretionary assessment of personal needs, to recipients on the basis of a legally defined position and relates to one of the social security risks expressly mentioned in the coordination regulation.

Thus, in order for a benefit to be a social security benefit within the meaning of the regulation, it must simultaneously satisfy the following conditions:

• entitlement to the benefit should be legally enforceable. This is the case when the institution responsible for paying the benefit lacks any discretion to grant the benefit to a person satisfying the objective conditions laid down in the national legislation. These conditions may include a means-test.
• the benefit must relate to one of the following branches of social security: sickness benefits; maternity and equivalent paternity benefits, invalidity pensions, old-age pensions, survivors’ benefits, benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases; death grants; unemployment benefits; pre-retirement benefits; and family benefits. Benefits which do not appear on this list are outside the scope of the regulation, unless they display a sufficient link with any of the risks mentioned. This is the case, for instance, with long-term care benefits, which constitute sickness benefits for the purposes of the coordination regulation (see also the keyword material scope and social security risks).

It should be noted that the way in which a benefit is classified under domestic law is not decisive for determining whether or not it is covered by the coordination regulation. The relevant assessment is based essentially on the constituent elements of the benefit in question, in particular its purposes and the conditions on which it is granted, and not on the classification of the benefit under national legislation. For instance, a benefit which is considered by the national authorities as belonging to the field of social assistance may well be a social security benefit for the purposes of the regulation, having regard to its intrinsic characteristics. Likewise, a benefit which forms part of a national maternity insurance scheme may well constitute a family benefit within the meaning of the regulation. Also continued wage payments in case of sickness which under national legislation form part of labour law, have to be regarded as social security benefits for the purposes of the coordination regulation.

As war benefits do not fall within the material scope of the coordination rules (see the keyword material scope), no explicit provision is made for the waiving of residence clauses which may exist in national legislation. However, this does not necessarily mean that national residence requirements in respect of the granting of war benefits are compatible with Union law. The Court of Justice has ruled that national legislation which makes the payment of a war benefit conditional on the fact that applicants are resident in the territory of the State concerned at the time when the application is submitted or during the whole period of the granting of the benefit, is contrary to the right to move and to reside freely within the territory of the Member States, as conferred on every European citizen by Article 21 TFEU (see also the keyword citizen of the EU).