The April edition of en covered the 6 April changes to access to NHS healthcare for missionaries based overseas.
The clarification of ‘ordinary resident’ has now been more clearly defined (!) by the government. This is the key criteria for receiving free NHS treatment, beyond emergency / GP treatment for returning missionaries, for whom until recently, an exemption existed.
No indefinite intention
‘A person can be absent from the UK for a temporary or finite period and still be ordinarily resident [in the UK]. Staff, workers and volunteers for UK charity and missionary agencies, and their family members, may not intend to live overseas indefinitely, and may maintain a base in the UK to which they return regularly or periodically between assignments. This base may be their own home or the home of close friends or family. A letter from the UK-based organisation for which they have gone overseas, confirming that their assignment or series of assignments is temporary, may also be useful. Appearing settled in another country does not prevent them also being properly settled here, since a person can be ordinarily resident in more than one country at once.’
Organisations are advised to check their workers are on accurate temporary contracts, and to get insurance for those who don’t qualify. Mission organisations are, amongst other things, being advised to ensure that:
1 mission partners are making frequent and regular visits to the UK (but care needs to be taken on overall time in any 365 day period due to the new rules in relation to tax liability for periods in the UK)
2 these visits are of a reasonable length of time with a defined purpose
3 any children are placed in school/play-group for the time of the visit
4 a firm address of their own / a family members acts as their base in the UK where, ideally, bank statements are sent and that this UK bank account is regularly used
