Urgent Help needed - child benefit claim on Tier 1 (general)

[NMAK]

I have applied for child benefit for my daughter during November 2011. I have received child benefit for a period of 2.5 months (£203) from 17th November 2011 to January 2012.

However, in February 2012 I came to know that I am not eligible for child benefit as it is considered as public fund. I hold UK work VISA – Tier 1 (General) and as per which I have no recourse to public funds. (I came from India and I have not worked in Canada). So I immediately called child benefit office to stop my child benefit in February 2012. Since February 2012 I have not received child benefit.

Having read some of the posts in this forum, I have returned the amount to HMRC on 8th Feb 2013. I am waiting for confirmation post from HMRC confirming that i have been over paid and that i have returned the amount completely.

My visa is due to expire on 5th march 2013. I am struck with following questions:

1. The dependent application form section L1 asks “Have you ever claimed any public funds? “,
Can I explain the history regarding my child benifit claim and repayment back to HMRC in the covering letter?

2. Is there any section in application form where I can explain that I have returned the amount to HMRC ?

3. Will there be any negative effect on my visa extension?

Please can you share your experience and guide me for my extention.

Thanks in advance.

[NMAK]

Senior members please help.

[mulderpf]

I believe that the question on the Tier 1 form is in the present tense and only asks if you are currently claiming any benefits, so you would not be providing any false information by answer no to this question.

It is interesting that you even went through the trouble of applying for benefits when it's probably the one thing they make clear over and over again during the entire process, but I'll leave it at that as you have clearly recognised this as a mistake and tried to rectify the situation.

As you were in breach of the conditions of your visa between November 2011 and January 2012 by claiming benefits, this will always be with you and it can come back to haunt you at any point in time. Nobody can tell you for sure that it will not have a negative effect on any future application, as you were clearly in breach of the conditions of stay in the past.