The Child Benefit (General) Regulations 2003

Persons temporarily absent from Great Britain

22.—(1) A person who is ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and is temporarily absent from Great Britain shall be treated as being in Great Britain during the first—

(a) 8 weeks of any period of absence; or

(b) 12 weeks of any period of absence where that period of absence, or any extension to that period of absence, is in connection with—

(i) the treatment of his illness or physical or mental disability;

(ii) the treatment of his partner’s illness or physical or mental disability;

(iii) the death of a person who, immediately prior to the date of death, was his partner;

(iv) the death, or the treatment of the illness or physical or mental disability, of a child for whom either he or his partner is, or both of them are, responsible; or

(v) the death, or the treatment of the illness or physical or mental disability, of his or his partner’s relative.

(2) A person is temporarily absent from Great Britain if at the beginning of the period of absence his absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks.