ILR and publc funds

[ikp]

hi

i am applying for ILR next year on the basis of my marriage,
my wife is a British citizen, she receives housing and council tax benefits from local council, when she was filling in application for benefits she didn't include my name and my monthly income on the application so basically the council is not aware that we live together and share the same house,

i want to know should i send her to local council to stop her benefits before i apply for a indefinite leave to remain. i don't want them to think that i'll claim any benefits from public funds.

i am in a full time employment and i earn around £1200 per month.

[SYH]

i think its lame that you think if you stop getting funds that you are absolved
but first of all if your spouse is british, she can claim whatever funds she wants,
so why would you be so presumptuous to tell her to stop receiving what she is entitled to.

[Wanderer]

Is it not more serious than that?

Seems to me the couple are committing benefit fraud if they have income that hasn't been declared to the council WRT HB/CTB.

I know from my time when I was financially on my arse you need to earn practically nothing to get CTB so I'd imagine the OP's partners doesn't work at all and is therefore getting maximum CBT.

I dunno what the OP can do to get out this hole, maybe do what he suggests and hope and pray no one finds out.

I don't want to help anymore, I'm flabbergasted!

[SYH]

Is it not more serious than that?

Seems to me the couple are committing benefit fraud if they have income that hasn't been declared to the council WRT HB/CTB.

I know from my time when I was financially on my arse you need to earn practically nothing to get CTB so I'd imagine the OP's partners doesn't work at all and is therefore getting maximum CBT.

I dunno what the OP can do to get out this hole, maybe do what he suggests and hope and pray no one finds out.

I don't want to help anymore, I'm flabbergasted!

Thats the other side of the coin. For the Immigration side, what i said applies.
What you just mentionned is an excellent point and is just as lame if she should have reported what he was making for the CTB to be calcuated correctly.

[pennylessinindia]

she didn't include my name and my monthly income on the application so basically the council is not aware that we live together and share the same house, i don't want them to think that i'll claim any benefits from public funds. i am in a full time employment and i earn around £1200 per month.

It is Christmas and I will be kind - but doing what you are doing is so wrong and this is just what gets many folks annoyed. You are married so why are you not completing the the forms and declaring yourselves correctly. Why do you think your wife is entitled to claim when you are earning? Do you think by posting here it absovles you of the fraud?

[John]

I share the concerns expressed above, but given that it is Christmas, I shall put on a better interpretation, one that at least might have led to confusion.

Under the terms of Rule 6A of the Immigration Rules the "settled" spouse is allowed to claim things like Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit, but is not allowed to claim more such benefit because their visa-holding spouse is living with them. Accordingly the fact that the visa-holding spouse is living there should not be taken into account when calculating the amount of the benefits.

However this rule does not absolve the claimant from declaring the income of their spouse living with them, and as here in this case, such declaration would undoubtedly cause less benefit to be paid.

So IKP, is this the confusion in the mind of yourself and your wife? And by the way, do please confirm that your wife is not still claiming the 25% Council Tax single occupant discount.

[Wanderer]

I share the concerns expressed above, but given that it is Christmas, I shall put on a better interpretation, one that at least might have led to confusion.

Under the terms of Rule 6A of the Immigration Rules the "settled" spouse is allowed to claim things like Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit, but is not allowed to claim more such benefit because their visa-holding spouse is living with them. Accordingly the fact that the visa-holding spouse is living there should not be taken into account when calculating the amount of the benefits.

However this rule does not absolve the claimant from declaring the income of their spouse living with them, and as here in this case, such declaration would undoubtedly cause less benefit to be paid.

So IKP, is this the confusion in the mind of yourself and your wife? And by the way, do please confirm that your wife is not still claiming the 25% Council Tax single occupant discount.

John, if she's getting maximum CTB then single occupancy is not an issue, she won't be paying any CT at all at least based on my experience of being very poor, even then I didn't get 100%!

1200 a month would most like mean no CTB at all, and a smaller HB cheque, again based on my experience when I was earning a similar amount.

[John]

John, if she's getting maximum CTB then single occupancy is not an issue

A couple of points, firstly, we don't know .... we have not been told ..... whether she is getting 100% CTB. Secondly, she should still have notified that her husband was living there, because it affects the amount of CTB payable, and therefore might be an issue in determining whether she would actually get 100%, or a lower percentage.

That is, I think the 25% single occupant discount (if applicable) comes off first, because it is not means-tested, and thus the CTB calculation must come later in the calculations.

[thesaint]

I was trying to stop my self responding to this post but I couldn’t.
I am really sick of people trying to have every thing
Why people don’t respect the law and play by the rules?
Being honest was always the easy way to avoid any hassle

Wish you all a merry christmas

[John]

Why people don’t respect the law and play by the rules?

Fair comment, as long as it is clear what the rules are actually saying. I just have a horrible suspicion that what we have here is "just" a misinterpretation of what the rules are actually saying.

Anyone thinking the rules are clear should look at the definition of "Public Funds" in Rule 6 of the Immigration Rules, and then also read Rules 6A and 6B. Clear to you want impact 6A and 6B actually have?

[thesaint]

Fair comment, as long as it is clear what the rules are actually saying. I just have a horrible suspicion that what we have here is "just" a misinterpretation of what the rules are actually saying.

I agree also feel sorry for the people who suffer because of this misinterpretation but some times the rules are absolutely clear one of them is to declare your marital status and your income in a benefits application

[vinny]

See also 6A and 6B of the Immigration Rules and Chapter 1 -General provisions, Section 7 - Public funds.

[ikp]

thanks for your help

I do respect the law, and i know what the laws are , i used this website because i needed your advise from the immigration side but i didn't ask you to tell me what should i do in my personal or financial life.

you have no right to put comments on someone's life.

anyways, I've got 10 or 12 replies, and only few were pointing on the right side of my query, thanks for that.

[John]

ikp, I think people are rather concerned how serious this is.

[SYH]

thanks for your help

I do respect the law, No you don't or you wouldn't be trying to circumvent by stopping payments or failing to report your income for council tax purposes. and i know what the laws are If you did, then we did you abuse it. , i used this website because i needed your advise from the immigration side but i didn't ask you to tell me what should i do in my personal or financial life. Tough, sometimes you can't have one without the other. Next time, don't post

you have no right to put comments on someone's life.
then don't ask us questions about your life, the immigration side of it isn't in a vacuum so it helps to not be silly and pretend otherwise

[BG101]

I have to agree with the respondents on this one. My understanding is that, as the British husband of a Visa national who is subject to the rule "no recourse to Public Funds" I CAN NOT claim any such funds if they are deemed to be of joint benefit, i.e. Council Tax relief, Working Family Tax Credits etc. etc.

If I became incapacitated I could claim disability or whatever, however had I been claiming any such benefits at the time of the Visa application I would have failed the required financial test, and the visa would have been refused on those grounds, regardless of my Wife's credentials.


Just my 2p worth

BG

[John]

No BG, that is not a correct interpretation. Firstly, as regards Council Tax Benefit, and indeed Housing Benefit, these are not joint claims. They are claimed by just one person. You are perfectly entitled to claim, but it must be clear that you are not getting more such CTB or HB because your spouse is living there with you.

As regards Tax Credits, yes these need to be claimed jointly by a couple living together. However as you are British there is no problem you and your spouse submitting a joint claim for Tax Credits, This is because of "small print" in the Tax Credits legislation, namely reg 3(2) Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003, as reinforced by rule 6B of the Immigration Rules.