Hello once again all,
After the brilliant advice about getting a spouse visa I got from this forums members my wife Nat is now a regular reader ( I try to get her to post for new friends )I call on you another time.
I have recently been made redundant along with some fellow workmates and have come stuck with finding employment for when I finished. I have made a claim with the local jobcentre plus for contribution based JSA and also housing benefit and council tax benefit. I am not up to scratch with claiming benefit as a rule I do not tend to do it, but I have been told contadictary statements. The job centre plus advisor told me that I could put Nats name on my paperwork and it would be processed as a family claim, another adisor told me that Nats name would be put on the form and notes would be made as to Nats no recourse to public funds. Finally, an immigration advisor at the council told mne that Nats name could not be put on a form for joint application as this would affect the application for ILR.

I am stuck as to what to do, advice please.

Also, why does my 3 month old baby keep crying

Dave C, sorry to hear about your redundancy ... hopefully matters will improve in the near future.

As I read your post I was thinking ... have they got any children? And then near the end of your message you mention the 3mo baby! Who hopefully will get quieter soon!

There are a number of benefits here, some because of the redundancy and others not. Let's have a quick review :-

• Child Benefit - this is a single-claimant benefit .... totally OK for you to be the claimant .... but your wife has a visa with a "No recourse to Public Funds" restriction .... so she must not claim Child Benefit.
• Tax Credits - these needs to be claimed jointly by a couple living together. However in view of small print in the Tax Credits legislation ... reg 3(2) of the Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003 ... coupled with para 6B of the Immigration Rules ... it is totally OK for you and your wife to jointly claim Tax Credits
• Contribution-based JSA, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit - these are claimed by one person - and you are being ill-advised by the person at the Council! You can claim! The fact is that para 6A of the Immigration Rules makes clear that you are not allowed to claim more money because of your wife, with her restricted visa, being in the house. However the fact is that "a couple with one child" will get exactly the same benefit as "single parent with one child" ... and accordingly your wife's presence in the house is not actually giving you any more money.

Do appreciate that as regards JSA etc the position would be very different if there were no children in the house. This is because "a couple" would tend to get more benefit than "a single person", and accordingly para 6A of the Immigration Rules would be breached.

In the context of Public Funds, defined in para 6 of the Immigration Rules, one must not overlook the following paras 6A and 6B, which read :-

quote:

6A. For the purpose of these Rules, a person is not to be regarded as having (or potentially having) recourse to public funds merely because he is (or will be) reliant in whole or in part on public funds provided to his sponsor, unless, as a result of his presence in the United Kingdom, the sponsor is (or would be) entitled to increased or additional public funds.

6B. A person shall not be regarded as having recourse to public funds if he is a person who is not excluded from specified benefits under section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 by virtue of regulations made under sub-sections (3) and (4) of that section or section 42 of the Tax Credits Act 2002.

Finally, the Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003 are indeed made under section 42 of the Tax Credits Act 2002, so the ability to claim Tax Credits is OK where a couple consists of one person not subject to immigration control, and the other one subject to immigration control.

Wow another great answer from John

Maybe I can help with the other question, which John has failed to cover

quote:

If the baby stops screaming, I'll have a good night.

Alcohol.

Maybe a small nip for yourself and then hand the rest of the bottle to the nipper, that should do it.

Keith

quote:

Maybe a small nip for yourself and then hand the rest of the bottle to the nipper, that should do it.

funniest post on here for ages

Thanks again for answering my questions and in so much detail.

John, I think if I start quoting the text you wrote at the council they would put me on hold for quite a while.

~Thanks for the brilliant info~




Its the thai whiskey you got to watch out for even a small nip gets me coughin

Hi Dave.

Sorry to hear about the redundancy.

If you require further information on benefits or just help with the claiming process, you might like to consider your local welfare rights team.

They offer great advice and can really help you through what is a very complicated system.

I can't praise my local welfare rights team enough for the work they do in guiding my clients through the system and maximising their benefits.

Your local team can be found here Rochdale.

Best of luck with the job hunting.

Lee

The discussion on National Insurance has been moved to here.