Sure Start Maternity Grant + IJSA

[hbee86]

Hello everyone, I am in a tough situation right now. I am a British born UK citizen and my wife is from the U.S I was made redundant and have resorted to claiming income based job seekers allowance while being a full time student as well and looking for more work.

My wife is 8 months pregnant, due to her visa restrictions she has no recourse to public funds and cannot work or claim income support. I was told by the jobcentre plus to make a couple's claim and made it clear to them she has no recourse to public funds, she also has no NIN but they set up an interview for her to get one for next week.

We had applied for the sure start maternity grant since I have been on income based job seekers, I was told by the advisor on the phone at the social fund office that it was declined based on my wife not being on benefits or having a NIN but I was also told by someone else that her status should not matter since it was me who made the claim and since she is not entitled to work or benefits that we should have been granted the SSMG. I ticked the box on the SSMG form that asked if she had ever been given a NIN and said "no". Also explained on the form our situation.

So now we are waiting for her to get the NIN next week, so they can finish processing my couples claim and what we are worried about is since she has no recourse to public funds, even if they put her on couples claim and payed me the single's rate the sure state maternity grant might not still go through because she cant be on benefits. She wouldnt be receiving any benefit but I would be, and as far as the SSMG claims that only one of us needs to be on benefits or have a NIN to qualify.

Does any of this make sense? We really need some advice on this, we are going to call them up again on monday to explain in more detail and ask them to reconsider their decision. If we have to wait for the jobcentre plus to sort out the claim and her NIN that is no problem, we just do not know what to expect and need some advice....cheers!

[patman1]

I'm Not sure either to be honest, i am going to be in the same boat as you very soon, what i have been advised is to contact community legal aid who can offer advise or welfare rights service, where i live welfare rights are run by the local council and they are great for offering advice and knowing the rules etc, sorry i carnt give any more help or advise but theses people should be able to offer some help or someone else on here, best of luck

[hbee86]

Ok so here is an update on the situation. We were initially refused the Maternity Grant and were told the reason was because I was not receiving Job seeker's allowance when infact I was. The problem was Jobseeker's kept me on a single claim ( as expected and rightfully so ) due to my wife not having an N.I and not being eligible for work or public funds. The DWP call center staff was saying it was because she had no N.I and to send an appeal. We sent an appeal showing proof I was on Jobseekers and photo copies of her N.I interview application, as well as a copy of her N.I refusal letter stating she cannot be allocated an N.I because she does not require one due to her ineligibility to work or receive public funds.

The decision was overturned and we were given the SSMG. It is agaisnt the law for the government not to allocate benefits to a British Citizen or a visa holder with IDLR that can access benefits even if their spouse does not qualify. I made sure they knew it was me claiming for our child to receive the grant and not my wife. We had unfortunetly talked to many rude people over the phone at the DWP that were very cold and kept telling us different things without knowing the facts or what was really going on with our claim. One of the call center staff told my wife that she should get out of the country, has no right to be here, and that our marriage did not matter. ( she has every legal right to be here, english is her first language and our marriage does matter! ) One of the staff member's also very rudely told us my wife had to have an N.I and be on benefits as well and since she cant have an N.I or receive any public fund then I can't claim which is not true at all.

My advice to anyone running into this same problem, keep at them and fight for your rights. Send all the proof you can, and appeal until a fair and rational decision is made. Don't let the call staff bully you like they did us, don't let them get away with being unprofessional. I sincerely thank whom ever it was that accepted our appeal and overturned the decision, I hope the staff get's better training so in the future they do not mislead and bully people like they did us.

I am currently in college and wife is a college graduate with a nursing degree and it really pains her that she cannot work until her visa restrictions are lifted when we change her status. I lost my job last year and have been doing odd jobs here and there, and have sent out hundreds of applications. I will hopefully soon be working with my brother, and we won't have to worry about the benefits anymore!