43With regard to determining the nature of the benefit at issue in the main proceedings, it must be recalled that, according to the Court’s settled case-law, social security benefits must be regarded, irrespective of the characteristics specific to different national legal systems, as being of the same kind when their purpose and subject matter as well as the basis on which they are calculated and the conditions for granting them are identical. On the other hand, characteristics which are purely formal must not be considered relevant criteria for the classification of the benefits (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 July 1983, Valentini, 171/82, EU:C:1983:189, paragraph 13; of 18 July 2006, De Cuyper, C‑406/04, EU:C:2006:491, paragraph 25; and of 11 September 2008, Petersen, C‑228/07, EU:C:2008:494, paragraph 21).
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