The procedure set out below should be followed if you want to receive benefits intended to replace income which is suspended because of incapacity for work, regardless of whether that incapacity stems from sickness, maternity, an accident at work or an occupational disease. Cash benefits are provided by the competent institution, at its own expense and in accordance with its own legislation. They are normally paid out directly by the competent institution. However, this institution can agree with the institution of the State of stay or residence that the cash benefit will be paid out by the latter (this in no way affects the amount of the benefit).

In order to receive cash benefits in the State in which you reside or stay, you have to file a claim with the institution of the competent State. This should be done within the time limits provided by the legislation of the competent State and, provided the legislation of the competent Member State so requires, by submitting a certificate of the incapacity of work and its probable duration issued by the doctor providing treatment in the Member State of residence or stay.

If the competent State requires such a certificate but the doctors in the place of residence or stay do not issue these certificates, you must apply directly to the institution of the place of residence or stay, which will immediately have the incapacity for work medically confirmed and have the certificate drawn up and immediately forwarded to the competent institution.

It is thus the doctor or the institution of the country of residence or stay which carries out the examination and establishes the start date and duration of the incapacity for work. The institution of the place of stay or residence does so by applying the provisions of its legislation, for instance regarding the procedure to be followed and the criteria for incapacity of work. The competent institution may, if it wishes, have you examined by a doctor of its choice (but may not require you to return to the State where you are insured for the examination if you are unfit to travel or if the competent institution does not pay for the travel or stay in the competent Member State). If it does not make use of this possibility, it is bound by the findings of its counterpart in the State of residence or stay regarding the date of beginning and the length of incapacity for work.

When the competent institution has decided on the claim, both you and the institution of the place of residence or stay will be informed of that decision. If your claim is granted, the competent institution will make the necessary arrangements to have you paid the cash benefits in the country of residence or stay, usually by international money order or by paying it to your bank account in the competent State. After the award of the claim, the institution of the place of residence or stay will, at the request of the competent institution, carry out any administrative checks and follow-up medical examinations, in accordance with the legislation applied by the former institution. The report of the examining doctor concerning, in particular, the probable duration of the incapacity for work, will be forwarded without delay by the institution of the place of residence or stay to the competent institution.

If the competent institution decides to refuse or withhold the cash benefits, it will simultaneously notify you and the institution of the place of residence or stay.

See also the keywords accidents at work, occupational diseases and sickness benefits in cash.

Please refer to the questions under the keyword invalidity pensions.

Yes, there is. Member States must ensure that appropriate information is provided to insured persons regarding the changes in rights and obligations introduced by the current regulation, so as to enable them to assert their rights under the regulation. Services provided by the institutions should be user-friendly. Information provision to the insured persons should be guided by the principles of public service, efficiency, active assistance, rapid delivery, accessibility, including e-accessibility, in particular for the disabled and elderly.

This information duty laid upon institutions covers not only information regarding changes brought about by the current regulation, but extends to information about all the rights conferred on insured persons by the regulation. In particular, the institutions are under the obligation to respond to all queries within a reasonable period of time, at the latest within any time limits prescribed by the legislation of the State concerned. In this connection, they must provide the insured persons with any information required for exercising the rights granted by regulation.

In fulfilling these information duties, the authorities and institutions are to be assisted by the national liaison bodies designated by them.

Also the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems has a role to play in this respect; it must prepare the information which is needed to ensure that the parties concerned, including the insured persons, are aware of their rights and the administrative formalities required in order to assert their rights.

The relevant institution must forward the information and issue the documents to the insured persons without delay and in any case within any time limits specified under the legislation it applies. Moreover, the institution must notify the applicant residing or staying in another Member State of its decision either directly or through the liaison body of the State of residence or stay. If the applicant’s claim is rejected, the decision must indicate the grounds for refusal, the remedies and periods allowed for appeals.

When collecting, transmitting or processing personal data, Member States are under the obligation to ensure that the insured persons are able to exercise fully their rights regarding personal data protection.

Yes, the duty to provide information is mutual. You must inform the institutions of the competent Member State and of the State of residence as soon as possible of any change in your personal or family situation affecting your right to benefits.

This notably implies that you must forward to the relevant institution the information, documents or supporting evidence necessary to establish your situation or that of your family, to establish or maintain your rights and obligations and to determine the legislation applicable to you and your obligations under it. Failure to do so might result in the application of proportionate sanctions laid down by the legislation concerned, provided however that these sanctions are not heavier than those which apply in similar domestic situations and provided they do not make it excessively difficult in practice for you to exercise your rights under the regulation.

Examples of the positive duty on the insured person to provide information include the obligation to inform the institution of the State of residence about the simultaneous pursuit of activities in two or more Member States (applicable legislation), the obligation to inform the competent institution prior to the departure to another Member State to look for a job (unemployment benefits) and about the receipt of income e.g. in case of the award of means-tested benefits.

To find the relevant institutions, you can make use of the EESSI Public Directory, set up and managed by the European Commission, which contains an Institutions Database with the contact details of all the social security institutions that apply the regulation. You can find this Database on the European Commission website at the following address:
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social-security-directory/welcome.seam?langId=eng

In case you have mistakenly submitted information, documents or claims to an institution in a Member State other than the one in which is situated the institution competent to receive it, the former institution must resubmit the information, documents or claims without delay to the latter, which is bound by the initial submission date.

Yes, you can. The regulation expressly provides that authorities, institutions and tribunals of a Member State may not reject applications or other documents submitted to them on the grounds that they are written in one of the 23 official languages of the EU.
 

Broadly, the national invalidity insurance schemes can be divided into two types.

The first type covers schemes under which the amount of benefits (invalidity pension) is independent of the length of the periods of invalidity insurance. Typically, with these schemes, the person must be insured at the time the risk, i.e. invalidity, materialises. These schemes are called risk systems. They exist – for some or all categories of insured persons – in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

Under the second type, there is a relationship between the length of the periods of invalidity insurance and the amount of benefits. The longer the insured person has been insured, the higher the invalidity pension s/he will receive. Typically, with these schemes, it is not necessary that the person is insured at the start of the invalidity; insurance periods are “stored” and the person can claim the pension at a later date when the risk materialises. These schemes are called acquired rights systems. They exist in all of the other Member States. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Greece, France, Finland and Latvia also have acquired rights systems for some categories of insured persons.
Whereas risk systems display some characteristics of sickness insurance schemes, acquired rights schemes are close to old-age insurance systems.

Moreover, for regulation purposes, a distinction must be made between risk systems which are listed in an annex to the regulation (Annex VI to Regulation 883/2004) and other risk systems. The latter type of risk systems, together with the acquired rights systems, are referred to as type B systems. The risks systems listed in Annex VI constitute type A systems. The following Member States have invalidity schemes of type A: Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Latvia, Finland and Sweden.

The regulation’s rules for calculating invalidity pensions come into play when an employed or self-employed person has been subject to the legislation of more than one Member State. A completely different coordination regime applies according to whether the person concerned has completed periods of invalidity insurance exclusively under type A systems (see questions 35.2 and 35.3) or whether s/he has completed periods of invalidity insurance under at least one type B system (see questions 35.4-35.6, 35.8-35.9 and 35.11).

The way invalidity benefits are calculated varies from one country to another within the EU. There are two major methods of calculation when it comes to cross-border situations.

Some countries apply a risk-based logic (type A legislation). This means you are entitled to the same pension regardless of your periods of insurance, but you must be insured when the invalidity occurs. This calculation method applies only to certain schemes which are listed in Annex VI to Regulation 883/2004, i.e. schemes in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.

All other countries apply a pro-rata method (type B legislation). This means that the invalidity pension is calculated on the length of your insurance period in each country: the longer you were insured before becoming an invalid, the higher your pension will be. Even if you were not insured when becoming an invalid, you will still be entitled to a pension.

If you have only been insured under type B legislations, you will receive a separate pension from each country corresponding to the periods of insurance you completed there.

If you have only been insured under type A legislations, and if this legislation is listed in Annex VI to Regulation 883/2004, you will only receive a pension from the country where you were insured when you became an invalid.

If you have been insured under two or more type A and B legislations, you will receive a pro-rata pension from each of these countries.

Example: Having worked for 28 years in Ireland (type A system), Mr. X decides to take up employment in the UK (type A system). After 2 years of employment there, he becomes incapacitated. He resides in Lithuania. He submits a claim for invalidity pension to a Lithuanian institution.

When you have been insured exclusively under risk systems, you are entitled to receive an invalidity pension from one Member State only (“single pension system”). This is the Member State to whose legislation you were subject at the time you became incapable of work.

You have to submit a claim for an invalidity pension to the institution of the State where you were insured when you became incapacitated, or, alternatively, to the institution of the place of your residence, which will then forward the claim to the former institution. If you satisfy the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension laid down in the legislation of that State, you will receive a full invalidity pension provided by the institution of that State, calculated in accordance with its legislation.

In the example stated above, Mr. X’s claim will be forwarded by the Lithuanian institution to its UK counterpart. If Mr. X satisfies the conditions for entitlement laid down in UK legislation, he will receive an invalidity pension from the UK only, despite the fact that he has only worked there for 2 years. He cannot claim an Irish invalidity pension, even though he has worked there for the bulk of his career.

It is possible that the legislation of that Member State makes entitlement to an invalidity pension subject to the completion of periods of residence or insurance. If you did not reside or were not insured there for the prescribed period, you can rely on the principle of aggregation of periods (see the relevant keyword). If, for example, the legislation of the State under which you were insured at the time the incapacity for work occurred, provides for a qualifying period of 200 insurance days, and you completed only 150 days of insurance under that State’s legislation, the institution of that State must take into account periods of insurance which you completed under the legislation of any other Member State, as if they were completed under its own legislation.

It may be that, even after application of the principle of aggregation of periods, you do not satisfy the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension under the legislation of the State where you were insured at the time you became incapable of work, for instance because you do not meet the minimum degree of incapacity for work required by that legislation. If this is the case, you are entitled to be assessed for any benefits for which you may be eligible under the legislation of the Member State(s) where you were previously insured.

Example: Mr. X has worked successively in Member State A (type A system) for 10 years, in Member State B (type A system) for 8 years and in Member State C (type B system) for 2 years. He then becomes incapacitated. According to national legislation alone, Mr. X does not fulfill the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension in States A and B, as he was not insured there upon the materialisation of the risk. In State C, he does not satisfy the qualifying period of 3 years’ insurance. Even if he did, the amount of pension would be low, as he has only been insured in State C for a fairly short period of time.

As already indicated in the answer to question 35.1, fundamentally different rules apply according to whether or not you have completed periods of invalidity insurance under at least one type B system. If you did, the coordination rules which come into play are very similar to those governing entitlement and calculation of old-age and survivors’ pensions (see the relevant keywords).

The general rule is that you will receive an invalidity pension from each Member State to whose legislation you have been subject, even if one or more of these legislations operate type A systems.

In order toestablish entitlement to an invalidity pension under the legislation of the States where you were insured, you can make use of the principle of aggregation of periods (see the relevant keyword). The institutions of these States will have to take account of periods of insurance or residence completed in any other Member State, if this is necessary for entitlement to benefits under their legislation.

Moreover, the institution of the Member State(s) where you have been insured under a risk system, i.e. those States which make entitlement to an invalidity pension subject to the condition of being insured there at the time of the materialisation of the risk, must regard this condition as having been satisfied if you were insured under the legislation of another Member State at that time. In other words, for the purpose of establishing entitlement to invalidity pension, the risk system(s) under which you have been insured – whether type A or type B - are treated as fictive acquired rights systems. Furthermore, for the purposes of establishing entitlement to invalidity pension in the State(s) where you have been insured under a risk system, and where the legislation of that State makes entitlement subject to the condition that you received sickness cash benefits or have been incapable of work for a specified period, the institution that State must take into account periods during which you received, in respect of that incapacity or in respect of the invalidity following that incapacity, sickness cash benefits (including continued wage) or invalidity benefit respectively, under the legislation of the Member State to which you were subject at the time the incapacity for work occurred. These are applications of the principle of assimilation of facts (see the relevant keyword).

Let us now return to our example. On the basis of the regulation, Mr. X’s situation looks much better than under national legislation alone. The insurance periods completed in States A and B are taken into account for the purposes of establishing entitlement to invalidity pension in State C. Moreover, he will also receive invalidity pensions for the periods during which he was insured under type A systems, i.e. for the 18 years completed in States A and B, even though he was not insured there at the time of materialisation of the risk. In addition, States A and B have to aggregate the periods of insurance completed in the other Member States in case their legislation requires a specified duration of periods of insurance for entitlement to a pension (and this duration exceeds 10 and 8 years respectively). Suppose that the legislation of State B provides that a person can only obtain invalidity pensions if s/he first obtained sickness cash benefits. If Mr. X received these under the legislation of State C, this condition is deemed satisfied.

For the calculation of the invalidity pension in each Member State, the principle of proratisation is applied (see questions 35.5 and 35.6).

If your entitlement to invalidity pension under these States’ legislation is established – for which purpose you can rely on the arrangements set out in the answer to the question 35.4 – you will receive a pension from each of these States. These “partial” pensions are calculated according to the technique of proratisation, which is also used for calculating old-age and survivors’ pensions (see the relevant keywords).

The States under whose legislation you have been insured for invalidity proceed as follows.

Those States where you qualify for entitlement to invalidity pension on the basis of national law, without having recourse to the arrangements set out above, calculate a national or independent benefit, i.e. the pension to which you would be entitled by virtue of national legislation alone, without taking account of periods of insurance or residence completed in the other States;
Each State proceeds to the calculation of a theoretical pension, i.e. the pension that would be due from the State concerned if all periods of residence or insurance completed under the legislation of the States to which you were subject, had been completed in that State. In other words, this is the pension that you would receive from the State concerned if you had worked your entire career there. For risk systems - whether type A or type B - the amount of the theoretical pension corresponds to the amount of the pension which is due (or would be due, after applying the arrangements set out above) under national legislation. Note that overlapping periods are taken into account only once;
On the basis of this theoretical pension, each State will calculate a pro-rata pension. This will be done by applying to the theoretical amount the ratio between the duration of periods completed before materialisation of the risk in the State concerned and the total duration of periods completed before materialisation of the risk under the legislation of all Member States concerned;
If a national pension was calculated, the State concerned will compare it with the pro-rata pension which it established. You will receive the highest amount of the two. Those States (or that State) where you did not qualify for entitlement without having recourse to the abovementioned arrangements will pay you the pro-rata pension.

Note that in some well-defined cases, which are listed in an annex to the regulation (Part 1 of Annex VIII to Regulation 883/2004), and provided certain conditions are met, the institution concerned may forego the calculation of the theoretical and pro-rata pension. In these cases, the amount resulting from this calculation would be equal to or lower than the amount of the national pension, entitlement to which exists even without application of the arrangements set out in the answer to the question 35.4. In addition, the special calculation for benefits (listed in Part 2 of Annex VIII to Regulation 883/2004) could be relevant in exceptional cases in relation to invalidity pensions. If the calculation is not based on periods of time, the amount of such pensions can be calculated only on the basis of national legislation.

Example 1

Let us first elaborate on the example in the answer to question 35.4. Mr. X has worked successively in Member State A (type A system) for 10 years, in Member State B (type A system) for 8 years and in Member State C (type B system) for 2 years. Mr. X is entitled to receive pensions from all three States. As Mr. X only satisfied the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension in these States after application of the mechanisms referred to in the answer to question 36.1 (aggregation of periods of insurance etc.), no independent benefit can be calculated by the institutions of States A, B and C. Each of these institutions will calculate a theoretical pension, i.e. will calculate the pension which would be due if Mr. X had been insured under the respective legislations for 20 years. On the basis of these theoretical pensions, the institutions proceed to the calculation of the pro-rata pension. This will be:
for State A: 10/20 of the theoretical pension of that State
for State B: 8/20 of the theoretical pension of that State
for State C: 2/20 of the theoretical pension of that State.

Example 2

Let us now consider another example. Ms. Y has worked in Member State D (type B system) for 25 years. After that, she has worked for 5 years in Member State E (type A system), where she becomes incapacitated. Ms. Y satisfies the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension under the acquired rights system in State D, but not in State E, whose legislation provides for a qualifying period of 10 years. It is necessary for Ms. Y to have recourse to the principle of aggregation of periods in order to establish entitlement in State E. Only State D will calculate an independent benefit. Both States proceed to the calculation of the theoretical and pro-rata pension. For State D, the pro-rata pension will be 25/30 of the theoretical pension of that State. For State E, it will amount to 5/30 of the theoretical pension for that State. State D will compare the national pension with the pro-rata pension and grant Ms. Y the higher of the two. State E will grant Ms. Y the pro-rata pension.

To answer the question, it is necessary to distinguish between two kinds of situations, i.e. overlapping of benefits of the same kind and overlapping of benefits of a different kind.

Benefits of the same kind are invalidity, old-age and survivors’ benefits awarded on the basis of periods completed by one and the same person. In respect of overlapping of these types of benefits, national anti-accumulation rules may be applied in very limited circumstances only. The benefits to which these rules may be applied are listed in an annex to the regulation (Annex IX to Regulation 883/2004) and include invalidity pensions acquired under risk systems (whether type A or type B) and invalidity, old-age or survivors’ benefits which include future (credited) periods in the calculation. For instance, if you receive an invalidity pension from Member State A (risk system) and another invalidity pension from Member State B, State A may possibly reduce the invalidity pension, but only within the limit of pension paid by State B. In any case, national anti-accumulation rules cannot be applied to pro-rata pensions, only to independent benefits.

If, on the other hand, you receive benefits of a different kind or other income under the legislation of two or more Member States, national anti-accumulation rules may be applied in a greater number of cases. The application of these rules is, however, subject to specific limitations, intended to prevent states from reducing benefits in the event of overlapping without taking account of similar anti-accumulation rules applied in another Member State. Such limitations consist, for instance, in the division of the amount of the benefit concerned by the number of benefits subject to the anti-accumulation rules.

Yes, this is possible. By way of exception, the regulation provides that the single pension system - which is normally reserved for cases where persons have been insured exclusively under type A systems - under certain conditions applies to cases where persons have been insured under both type A and B systems. These conditions are the following:
 

• you were insured under a type A system at the time you became incapacitated
• you satisfy the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension under a type A system, where necessary after aggregation of periods completed under other type A systems (but not under type B systems)
• you do not make any claim for old-age pensions in any Member State.

If, for instance, in the second example given in answer to question 35.6, Ms. Y were not entitled to an invalidity pension under the legislation of State D (e.g. because she did not meet the required minimum level of incapacity for work), all other things remaining equal, the single pension rule would apply. In that case, the institution of State E would have been liable to pay the full amount of the invalidity pension provided under its legislation. Ms. Y would then find herself in the same position as persons who would have been insured in State E only.

There is no need to make a separate claim to the institution of each of the Member States where you have worked. You must submit an application for an invalidity pension to the institution of the State of residence or to the institution of the State to whose legislation you were last subject. In case you have never been subject to the legislation of the State where you reside and you submitted a claim for invalidity pension to the institution of that State, that institution must forward it to the institution of the State to whose legislation you were last subject. The institution to which you submitted the claim – or to which it must be forwarded – is called the contact institution. The contact institution will play a central role in the process of handling your claim for invalidity pension. It has to ensure, throughout the process, that all the relevant information is forwarded to all the institutions involved. It will promote the exchange of data, the communication of decisions and the operations necessary for the investigation of your claim. It is also this institution which, upon your request, must provide you with any information relevant to the Community aspects of the investigation and keep you informed of its progress.

The date of submission of the claim will apply in all the institutions to whose legislation you have been subject. If, however, you fail to notify, despite having been asked to do so, the fact that you worked or resided in other Member States, the date of completion of the initial claim or of the new claim will be considered as the date of submission, save more favourable provisions of the legislation applied by the contact institution.

The claim must be submitted in accordance with the legislation of the contact institution and be accompanied by the supporting documents required by that legislation. In particular, you must supply all available relevant information and supporting documents regarding periods of insurance (institutions), employment (employer) or self-employment (nature and place of activity) and residence (addresses) completed under the legislation of other Member States, including the length of those periods.

The contact institution will send your claim for an invalidity pension and all relevant documents to the other institutions to whose legislation you have been subject, allowing them to start to investigation of the claim at the same time. All the institutions involved will mutually notify each other about your insurance history under their legislation.

At the end of the process, each of the institutions to whose legislation you have been subject will notify you its decision concerning the pension claim, specifying the remedies and periods allowed for appeal under the relevant national legislation. Once the contact institution has received all decisions taken by the institutions involved, it will send you and the other institutions a summary of these decisions. This “summary note” is drafted in the language of the contact institution or, at your request, in any other official EU language. Receipt of this summary note, which gives you an overview of the way the different institutions have dealt with the periods completed in the corresponding States, triggers another right of review. If you believe that your rights are adversely affected by the interaction of two or more decisions taken by institutions, you can ask these institutions to review the decision. The time limits to request this review are those fixed by the legislation applied by the institutions involved. It commences on the date of receipt of the summary note.

No, you do not. If any of the institutions to whose legislation you have been subject establishes, during the investigation of your claim, that you satisfy the conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension under its legislation, without recourse to the principle of aggregation of periods, it will pay you an independent benefit immediately. If the amount might be affected by the result of the investigation procedure, that payment will be considered provisional.

From the moment it becomes apparent that you are entitled to a pro-rata pension from a given institution, that institution will make an advance payment of an amount as close as possible to the pro-rata pension that will eventually be paid.

The institution(s) making these provisional or advance payments have a duty to inform you without delay, specifically drawing your attention to the provisional nature of these payments and of any rights of appeal under the relevant legislation.
 

As already indicated, as national social security legislations are not harmonised, each State is free to determine the conditions for granting invalidity pensions, including the required minimum level of incapacity for work, as long as it does not discriminate, directly or indirectly, against nationals of other Member States. It follows that there are important differences between the Member States as to the criteria for invalidity.

In a (limited) number of cases, it is stated in an annex to the regulation (Annex VII to Regulation 883/2004) that the legislations of the Member States correspond when it comes to the conditions relating to the degree of invalidity. Such “concordance” is acknowledged, for certain schemes, between Belgium and France (and vice versa), France and Italy (and vice versa) and Belgium and Italy (and vice versa). If the legislation applied by the institutions involved is included in Annex VII, and the eligibility conditions of that legislation are fulfilled (where necessary by having recourse to the principle of aggregation of periods), only the contact institution is authorised to take a decision concerning your degree of invalidity, and its decision will be binding upon the other institutions.
If the legislation applied by the contact institution is not included in Annex VII, the institution whose legislation is included in that Annex and to whose legislation you were last subject is competent to determine the degree of invalidity in a binding manner for the Member States included in that Annex. Member States which are not included (e.g. that one in which the contact institution is situated) are free to decide on the invalidity without being bound by the decision of the other Member State(s). The same applies if the eligibility conditions of the former legislation, even when having recourse to the principle of aggregation of periods, are not fulfilled, provided you meet the conditions for entitlement of the latter legislation – again, where necessary, by relying on the principle of aggregation of periods.
The decision will be taken as soon as it can be determined that the conditions for eligibility in the relevant legislation are met. The institution which took the decision will notify it the other institutions concerned.

In the majority of cases, however, the institutions of the other States where you have been insured are not bound by the decision of the contact institution (or the institution to whose legislation you were last subject). In those cases, they have the possibility to have you examined by doctors or other experts of their choice to determine the degree of invalidity. As a result, it is possible that you are recognised as being incapable of work in one Member State, but not in another, or to a different degree.

Insofar as subsequent administrative checks and medical examinations are concerned, when you reside or stay outside the State where the institution responsible for paying the invalidity pension is located, these will be carried out by the institution of the place where you reside or stay, at the request of the institution of the State paying a pension. These checks and examinations are performed in accordance with the procedures provided for by the legislation of the State where you reside or stay. The institution paying a pension will, where necessary, inform the institution of the place of residence or stay of any special requirements to be followed and points to be covered by the medical examination. The institution which performed the medical examination or the administrative check must forward a report to the institution paying the pension, which is binding upon the latter.

The institution paying the pension has the right to have you examined by a doctor of its choice. For this purpose, you may be required to go the State which is paying the pension, unless your medical condition does not allow you to travel. Your travel and accommodation expenses will be borne by the institution of that State.

The regulation provides that, as a rule, Member States are not obliged to award benefits in respect of periods of less than one year completed under their legislation. However, there are two exceptions to this rule.

First, if by virtue of the legislation of the Member State(s) concerned, a right to benefit is acquired in respect of a period of less than one year, without any aggregation of periods, the benefit must be awarded.

Second, if the effect of applying this rule would be to relieve all Member States where you have been insured of their obligation to pay invalidity pension, you will receive a pension from the last of the Member States where you were insured and whose conditions for entitlement are satisfied once all periods are aggregated.

Example: Ms. X was insured in Member State A for less than one year. She then moved to Member State B where she was insured for less than one year. Finally, she took up employment in Member State C where again she was insured for less than one year. Without aggregation, Ms. X does not fulfill the conditions for entitlement in any of these States. Suppose that, with aggregation, Ms. X would be eligible for benefit in States A and B. A pension is payable in State B.

Note that, even though States are not as a rule obliged to award benefits in respect of insurance periods of less than one year, such periods are taken into account for the purposes of calculating the theoretical pension (but not the pro-rata pension). This results de facto in proportionate consideration of these periods in the calculation of the benefit of all the Member States which have to pay benefits after aggregation. So if only two Member States are involved the Member State which has to grant a benefit includes the periods shorter than 12 months of the other Member State as if they were its own periods.

Please refer to questions 41.7-41.8 under the keyword medical care.

It is possible that, during the investigation of your claim for invalidity pension, you cease to be entitled to medical care under the legislation of the Member State where you have last worked. In that case, you and your family members may obtain medical care in the Member State where you reside, in accordance with the legislation of that State, provided you satisfy the conditions for entitlement to medical care under the legislation of the State that will pay for the care once the pension is awarded (generally speaking, that is the State of residence provided you worked there, otherwise the State where you worked or where you worked for the longest period). The benefits are provided at the expense of the institution of that State. See the keyword medical care.