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Home / Guides / Across the border
Cross-border · Ireland and Northern Ireland

Living or working across the border

Tax, benefits, healthcare and pensions are split between two systems when your life crosses the border. Every guide we have for it is here.

Last reviewed: 11 October 2026 · Verified against official sources

Where to startUse the free cross-border worker check: four questions, and it shows which country taxes you, pays your benefits and handles your pension. Then read Cross-border workers. It sets out which country taxes you and pays your benefits, and links to the detail for your situation. For everything that only applies in the North, see Northern Ireland; for the Republic, see Ireland.

Working across the border

If you live in one jurisdiction and work in the other, start with the first guide: it sets out which country pays your benefits and taxes you.

Cross-border

Cross-border workers

Who taxes you, who pays Child Benefit, and where to claim if you lose your job or fall ill.
Tax · Ireland

Trans-Border Workers Relief

For people living in the Republic and working in the North or Britain. The 13-week rule and the working-from-home trap.
Tax · Cross-border

Remote worker tax trap

Living in the North and working from home for a Republic employer, and what to do if tax goes to the wrong country.
Tax · Cross-border

Split-year tax residence

Moving between Ireland and the UK partway through a tax year.
Work · Northern Ireland

Statutory Sick Pay in NI

Sick pay for employees in the North, paid from the first day since April 2026.
Work · Northern Ireland

Redundancy pay in NI

How statutory redundancy is worked out in the North, and what to do if your employer is insolvent.
Cars · Cross-border

Cars across the border

When a car you drive in the Republic needs Irish registration, and the exemption for an NI employer's car.

Healthcare on both sides

Which health service covers you depends on where you live and where you work.

Health · Cross-border

Frontier worker healthcare

NHS or HSE, and what the S1 form actually does.
Health · Cross-border

Prescriptions across the border

When a prescription from one side is valid on the other, and what must be on it.
Health · Ireland

Cross-Border Healthcare Directive

Getting treatment elsewhere in the EU and claiming the cost back from the HSE.

Children, students and family

Family · Cross-border

Child Benefit across the border

Which country pays, and when the other one tops it up.
Family · Cross-border

Childcare across the border

Which childcare help you can use depends mostly on where the childcare is.
Education · Cross-border

SUSI or UK student finance

Which grant or loan covers a student crossing the border to study.
Education · Northern Ireland

Maintenance Grant for NI students

The grant students from the North do not pay back.
Education · Northern Ireland

Student Finance NI

Tuition Fee and Maintenance Loans for 2026/27, and studying in the Republic.
Bereavement · Northern Ireland

Funeral Expenses Payment (NI)

Help with funeral costs in the North, including a funeral held in the Republic.

Pensions, moving and residence

Pensions · Cross-border

Buying back UK State Pension years

Filling gaps in a UK record from Ireland.
Benefits · Ireland

Habitual residence condition

The test for many Irish payments after moving, who is exempt and what evidence helps.
Benefits · UK

Irish citizens and Universal Credit

How the Common Travel Area applies when Irish citizens claim in the UK.

Your rights under the Common Travel Area

British and Irish citizens keep the same social security rights in each other's country after Brexit. The UK and Irish governments have an agreement that protects them.

If you live in one state and work in the other, or work in both, you are covered by only one state's social security system at a time. You pay into that one, and you claim your benefits and pension from it, wherever you live.

Living in the other state, you can also get social housing, supported housing and homeless help on the same basis as its own citizens. The Common Travel Area on nidirect, and for Irish citizens claiming in Britain, see Irish citizens and Universal Credit.

Check what you could claim

The free check covers Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. Pick the side of the border you live on.

Cross-border worker check What could you claim?