Particular cases in application of the concept of usual residence
Article 4
1. Person who works away from the family home during the week and who usually returns to the family home at the weekends, shall consider the family home to be his or her place of usual residence, regardless of whether his or her place of work is elsewhere in the country or abroad. 2. Primary and secondary school pupils who are away from the family home during the school term shall consider their family home to be their place of usual residence regardless of whether they are pursuing their education elsewhere in the country or abroad. 3. In case of a dependent child alternating between two places of residence, the place where the child spends most of his or her time shall be considered as his or her usual residence. Where the child spends an equal amount of time with both legal guardians or parents, the place of usual residence of that child shall be the place of residence of the legal guardian or the parent who receives the child benefits, or, the place of residence of the legal guardian or the parent who contributes more towards the child-related costs. In case none of the above applies, the place where the child is found at the reference date (as defined for a specific data collection) shall be considered as his or her usual residence. In case of longitudinal data collections, the children alternating between two places of residence shall be considered at the same place of residence over different data collection waves, unless there was a change in life situation. 4. For data collections organised in the income and living conditions and the consumption domains the following additional specific rules shall apply: (a) persons who live outside their family home for an extended period of time for the purpose of work, regardless of whether elsewhere in the country or abroad, shall consider their family home to be their place of usual residence in case they significantly contribute to the household income and are not usual residents of another private household; (b) tertiary students who are away from family home while at college or university, regardless of whether elsewhere in the country or abroad, shall consider their family home to be their place of usual residence in case they benefit from the household income and are not usual residents of another private household. In duly justified cases, Member States may decide not to apply the rules set out in this paragraph. In those cases, Member States shall describe in their quality reports the criteria applied and shall ensure the appropriate reporting of data on the inter-household transfers, including payments on behalf of the student. The rules set out in this paragraph may also apply for the other domains in which case their application shall be described in the quality reports.