Claimed HiPG by mistake, How to resolve this issue ?

[Macco]

I am here on Tier-2 Visa (NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUND), and my wife had claimed HiPG, that time we were not aware that this is the part of public fund. Yesterday I was reading one query related to this subject in this forum and I got to know that I should not have claimed it. Today my wife called to HiPG to returned this back the money, which operator told that since you gave wrong information about "Subject to Immigration Control". we are sending this case to head office which they will investigate but they haven't told me how to return back this money. For "Subject to Immigration Control"..We thought it is for them whose case are pending in immigration, My fault, I should have checked it earlier. However my Visa is valid till March 2011, but I am worried that firstly what would happen in investigation? Secondly Would they really understand that this was a mistake from my side, which I want to rectify on my initiative. Kindly advice me how to go ahead now.. would they allow me to return back this money.. I would appreciate any kind of help in moving forward. Thanks in advance.

[Macco]

Further on following query, we haven't heard anything from HiPG, so my wife wrote a letter to them explaining each and every thing and asking on how to return the money back in 2nd week of Oct. Since She had a plan to visit her native country for 3 months starting Nov, So authorized me to handle this case on behalf of her during that time in that letter. Now I got an enquiry letter from them, which include following questions

Q5.Have you been granted limited leave to remain in the UK with "no recourse to public funds"? If yes what date was this granted ? ANSWER Would be YES to this question
Q7.Please tell us your Home Office reference number.

If you have answered YES to any of the questions 4 to 9, Please send with this enquiry form your passport and any home Office document you may hold(Original document required)
Now my wife is not in UK so is the passport, I am afarid on why they need her passport ?
Have we done anything wrong by taking initiative to rectify our mistake ?
Could you please throw some light on what should I do now and what is the intention for demanding her passport... Need your help.

[Macco]

I want to send the money back with Postal Order, could you please let me know PO had to be issue in favour of what..? and also to which address should I have to send the money ? Before replying to the enquiry letter I wanted to send the money back... Can anyone throw some light on this case please.

[John]

The good news is that HiPG is not within the definition of Public Funds, and given that it is just about to be abolished, it looks like UKBA has decided not to bother to add it to the Public Funds definition in para 6 of the Immigration Rules.

Until recently there were two benefits that UKBA should have added to that definition, namely, HiPG and also income-based ESA. They have now taken action to add income-based ESA to the definition, and had they chosen to do so could have easily added HiPG at the same time .... but they did not do that.

[Macco]

Thanks John for your reply. So that would mean that in next version of Visa form, HiPG would be removed from public fund list (My Visa extension is due in March 2011). If so, that would be real relief in my case.

Regarding to return the money back to HiPG, after our several attempts, they have finally send the Enquiry form, which says if answered YES to any of the question send this enquiry form with Passport and any Home office document. So if I will reply to them that would mean that I am further inviting problem for myself. So without further contacting HiPG , I wanted to send the money by PO but not sure that PO has to be issued in favour of what name ? and the address where I can send it ?

I am confused on what should I do to avoid any problem with my timely action. Please help me.

[John]

So that would mean that in next version of Visa form, HiPG would be removed from public fund list

One would hope so, but we are talking about UKBA here, so who knows how quickly they will act?

But in any case HiPG causes a problem for UKBA, because it is not like the other benefits that they might have hoped to be included in the Public Funds definition. That is, whilst benefits such as Child Benefit and Tax Credits, etc etc are paid weekly or monthly, HiPG is paid just once (per pregnancy).

So when we look at the SET(x) series of forms and look at the Public Funds question, we see that it is asked in the present tense ..... Are you claiming ....? So unless someone has just claimed and has not received the HiPG, the honest answer to the question that has been asked is "No"!

So Macco, given that to are making your application next March, even if HiPG is still mentioned on the form, you can happily ignore it.

[Macco]

Thanks John. So I should not be bothered about returning the money back ?
Also I have just checked in PBS Dependant Application form, the exact question is mentioned as

L2. The public funds which are relevant for the purposes of the Immigration Rules are listed below. Please tick the relevant box(es) to show which of these are being received.

[John]

So I should not be bothered about returning the money back ?

I am loathe to give a direct answer to that question. That is, for reasons as already stated I don't think this is a reason for UKBA to reject the visa application. However if the HiPG was obtained by giving an incorrect answer to a question on the HiPG application form, then maybe the grant should be returned .... even if the question on the form was genuinely misunderstood.