No recourse to public funds - tax credits

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:41 pm

Can anybody advise

I have a close friend who came into teh country on Ancestry visa which is a 5 yr visa (with no recourse to public funds )after which they can apply for ILR. They were told by friends here to apply for Working TC and Child TC to see if they are eligible which they did and were granted the TC.

They were however uncertain about it as they had been reading about it on teh internet etc and called the HMRC 3 times and asked them to check and they said it was alright for them to receive the TC.

However is about 10 months now beofre they get their ILR and they are worried. Can you please help..with advice

asim72 · Post by **asim72** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:02 am

Can you please clarify who is "they"?

What is your friend's partner's nationality/immigration status in UK?

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:08 am

My friend is here on UK ancestry (Nationalty Indian) and his wife is on a spouse visa.

Smam · Post by **Smam** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:23 am

Hi

Tax credits and child tax credits they dont come under any recourse to public fund area. That's just a tax discount facility provided by the HMRC to low earners if they've childrens.

Always remember this thing that when ever we say or we use the word "Recourse to Public Funds" means in clear terms that your friend or who so ever the Person in question here should not be receiving any money in to his bank account from the local authorities for eg Councils or Job Seekers Allowance from the Department of Work and Pensions and not claiming any other kinds benefits like housing any child benefits and other things like that neither the dependand should be claiming any benefits their ILR will not be affected.

This will wont affect their ILR at all what so ever.

Hope fully this will answer your question.

Good luck for your friends ILR.

Post by **John** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:38 am

Tax credits and child tax credits they dont come under any recourse to public fund area.

Totally wrong, Tax Credits are within the definition of Public Funds, as in para 6 of the Immigration Rules.

This particular couple, they should not be claiming Tax Credits, and should withdraw their claim without delay.

jjacqee, you ask about Tax Credits but do not mention Child Benefit. Are they also claiming Child Benefit? If the answer to that is yes, prior to coming to the UK, did either of them work in any other country, apart from India? If so, details please.

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:09 am

They are not receiving Child Benefit. They were automatically sent forms for Child Benfit when the tax credits were approved. However when they applied for Child benefit they were asked for copies of their passport adn then declined child beenfit.

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:25 am

Would they be asked to leave the country considering it was an administration error in approving the Tax credits.

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:25 am

They are also in the process of buying a home in the UK, will this be effected

asim72 · Post by **asim72** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:29 am

Smam wrote:Hi

Tax credits and child tax credits they dont come under any recourse to public fund area. That's just a tax discount facility provided by the HMRC to low earners if they've childrens.

Always remember this thing that when ever we say or we use the word "Recourse to Public Funds" means in clear terms that your friend or who so ever the Person in question here should not be receiving any money in to his bank account from the local authorities for eg Councils or Job Seekers Allowance from the Department of Work and Pensions and not claiming any other kinds benefits like housing any child benefits and other things like that neither the dependand should be claiming any benefits their ILR will not be affected.

This will wont affect their ILR at all what so ever.

Hope fully this will answer your question.

Good luck for your friends ILR.

Your self made definition of public funds is totally wrong. You do not have the slightest idea about what you are on about.

John is correct. The people in question must not claim tax credits or child benefit.

cs95tdg · Post by **cs95tdg** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:51 am

Please refer to the following reference to determine what Public funds are.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

Refer to Page 7-8...

Immigration Rules
Paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules (see related link) defines what benefits are consider as public funds for the purpose of any consideration of the Immigration Rules and it is this which determines whether they have breached their conditions by claiming them

The following benefits count as public funds:
 Attendance allowance
 Carers allowance
 Child benefit
 Child tax credit
 Council tax benefit
 Disability living allowance
 Housing and homelessness assistance
 Housing benefit
 Income-based jobseeker’s allowance
 Income related employment & support allowance – ESA (IR)
 Income support
 Severe disablement allowance
 Social fund payment
 State pension credit
 Working tax credit.

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 12:14 pm

They have also contacted the HMRC and informed them about this on 3 ocasions and they have not addressed this problem

asim72 · Post by **asim72** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 12:34 pm

By your statement, it appears that they know they are not entitled to these benefits, but they nevertheless they have just been claiming, in the hope that in the end they would somehow blame it on HMRC and get away with it.

And in which cuckooland do they think that HMRC needs to resolve a problem?

The problem is created by them having claimed benefits, which they are not entitled to. The only way to resolve is to withdraw the claim immediately and arrange to pay back the money they have wrongly claimed.

irfanb00 · Post by **irfanb00** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:55 pm

They should have queried this with the homeoffice before signing up to these public funds. This is a serious issue and may reject your current status as well. Ask your friend to stop it immediately and arrange for refunds.

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:17 pm

So if they start repaying will that be alright.

cs95tdg · Post by **cs95tdg** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:28 pm

jjacqee wrote:So if they start repaying will that be alright.

Just to make sure you understand. They must repay what they have wrongly claimed (& possibly a penalty - only HMRC will be able to confirm) as benefits.

What specific effect this now has on their immigration status, can only be determined by contacting the UKBA. I would advice them to first, stop claiming the benefit, then repay what they have already claimed and also inform the UKBA of what has happened to determine the next steps.

Post by **John** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:54 pm

I am just wondering why the Tax Credits claim was agreed by the Tax Credits Office.

On the application form there is a "Are you subject to Immigration Control?" question, and I wonder how that was answered?

jjacqee · Post by **jjacqee** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:29 pm

Yes the answer to that was "yes"

Post by **John** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:00 pm

That being the case, the fault is clearly with the Tax Credits Office.

Had the question been answered "No", and that had resulted in the claim being paid, that would have amounted to benefit fraud. Thankfully that does not apply.

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No recourse to public funds - tax credits