Extended family member with PSS of person with settles status/ perm R2R

Scenario:
Working age Polish couple, in UK 15 years, married and both have settled status.

pension age parents of Mrs come to Uk from Poland in Oct 2020 - apply to EUSS and get pre settled status until oct 2025.

The parents have now moved out from the daughters house and into a Hsg association property and want to claim HB.  - Claim was refused as PSS and not exercising treaty rights and I have a recon , saying parents are family members of an EEA national with settled status and are eligible.

PSS alone wont work, but could they be eligible under the “old rules” as an extended family member?
I saw Pete Barker’s comments on a different post :

On the wider point about pre-settled status of a joining family member where the principal EEA national has settled status, anyone with settled status also has their old EEA rights preserved, including the right of family members to piggy-back on the principal EEA national’s status as a worker etc.  Settled status in itself cannot be “piggy-backed” upon in this way, but many people with settled status will have an underlying EEA right to reside (most obviously a permanent right to reside) which their family members with pre-settled status can rely on.  But that is only an issue if the family member is an adult looking to make his/her own benefit claim: in the case of a child, it doesn’t matter because they do not need a right to reside to be included as a dependant on a parent’s claim.

So, are the pensioners with pre settled status eligible for HB because they are piggy backing a perm right to reside, rather than the settles status?

If we can potentially pay them,  i think we need to look at the support offered to them from their family members (because they are extended family members in old EEA rules ) -

They don’t live together so I think the working age kids have to be financially supporting the pensioners AND fufil one of the conditions below ( reg 8?)

1 is accompanying the EEA national to the UK / wishes to join him there, or
2 has joined him in the UK and continues to be dependent on him or to be a member of his/her household;
    a person who is a relative of an EEA national or his/her spouse or civil partner and, on dangerous health           grounds, strictly requires the personal care of the EEA national or his/her spouse or civil partner;

      he/she who is a relative of an EEA national and would meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules (other than those relating to entry clearance) for ILR as a dependent relative of an EEA national was the EEA national a person present and settled in the UK;

the pension couple have a Polish State pension of £415 per month - they have a health insurance premium deducted from that of approx £40 - i think this is the polish equiovalent of national insurance deductions. they have no other income

daughter says she is main carer for parents, and has provided a hospital appointment letter for a CAT scan for her dad, ( Oncology corridor, but that may be just where the CAT scanner is located rather than relating to why he is having the scan done)  but no other medical details.

If ia can look at extended family member route, what other info do I need?  dangerous health grounds/strictly requiring personal care from he daughter - that sounds quite specific and also a bit motre specialised than just looking after mum and dad who may have the usual aches pain and ailments associated with Old Age. Any ideas what would tick the box for this?

Do the parents need to have comprehensive medical insurance? i thought that only applied to old styl self sufficency but not sure.

Any guidance/pointers most welcome - I   **thinlk** we can look at the extended fam member routeute to pay them, but I am not sure . Likely to go to appeal if the refusal is uphld, but equally I dont want to pay them under old rules if thats no longer valid.
i really want to understand/ get my ducks in a row.

Thanks for reading - Prisca

I have heard this idea of being a “family member” of someone with settled status quite a lot but it is a muddle of the two sets of rules. Pre-settled status and settled status are both UK rights to reside which are personal to the holder and nobody else. The concept of rights being ‘mirrored’ in family members is unique to EU law - so the person needs to have an EU law right such as being a worker or permanent residence independently of their settled/pre-settled status in order for their rights to be ‘mirrored’.

In this case, its possible that the claimant is able to mirror the EU rights of Mr/Mrs. We assume that they have status as permanent residents. A family member of a permanent resident has a right to reside under EU law which is sufficient for benefit entitlement.

You have referred to the provisions relating to an extended family member, but I am not really sure they are particularly relevant here. A ‘dependent direct relative in the ascending line’ is a family member for the purposes of the EU rules (see reg 7(1)(c) EEA Regs). It seems to me that this is more apt to describe these circumstances.

(There are ‘extended family member’ criteria where someone either was dependent on the primary EU national in their home country and that dependency will continue in the UK, which cannot apply here given Mr and Mrs have lived in the UK for 15 years - or where a relative “strictly requires the personal care” of the primary EU national which seems to me to be a more difficult hurdle to meet than dependence)

The test for dependence is discussed in CIS/2100/2007 and is summarised as the claimant receiving support and “That support must be material, although not necessarily financial, and must provide for, or contribute towards, the basic necessities of life.”

So I suppose the core questions are whether Mr/Mrs are permanent residents or otherwise qualified persons and whether one or both of the parents are ‘dependent’ on either of them according to that test.