Child benefit / child tax credit question

August of 2014 I moved to the UK from Vermont with my darling wife and four children.  I came in under a company sponsored work visa.  My wife is a German national and is currently on maternity leave from her company in Germany.

My wife and I would like to apply for child benefit and/or the child tax credit.

HMRC has rejected my wife's application for child benefit because she is currently not:
    - Employed in the UK
    - Looking for a job in the UK
    - Not on job seekers allowance
    - Is not self sufficient

My visa states clearly that I do not have recourse to public funds.  According to HMRC this statement disqualifies me for child benefit or tax credit.

Is there a way I can qualify for child benefit under these circumstances?

Noting your immigration status, I am not clear why you would be applying at all. Your wife might qualify but then again your household income could be too large so that it would all have to be recovered.

If your wife is a US person or elects to be a US person, any such income would be taxable in the US. If your family income is low enough to qualify for UK tax credits you should also qualify for refundable child tax credit in the States, but not the EIC any more.

August of 2014 I moved to the UK from Vermont with my darling wife and four children.  I came in under a company sponsored work visa.  My wife is a German national and is currently on maternity leave from her company in Germany.

My wife and I would like to apply for child benefit and/or the child tax credit.

HMRC has rejected my wife's application for child benefit because she is currently not:
    - Employed in the UK
    - Looking for a job in the UK
    - Not on job seekers allowance
    - Is not self sufficient

My visa states clearly that I do not have recourse to public funds.  According to HMRC this statement disqualifies me for child benefit or tax credit.

Is there a way I can qualify for child benefit under these circumstances?

None at all payable by the UK. Your refusal for UK benefits was correct.
Can your wife claim child related benefits from her own EU country? Or you from yours?

You are not allowed UK benefits on a Tier 2 visa. Both the Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit you tried to claim are income based benefits and you are not allowed these. Taking UK benefits when you were not allowed them can mean a refusal of further visas to remain in the UK. Refusal of extensions for UK visas or ILR because they claimed child benefits, is a common post of other sites.

There are also new rules the UK brought in for those using the EU route to the UK and wanting to claim UK benefits, and because they are under EU law they are allowed to be retrospective. EEA citizens can no longer claim any UK benefits for the first 3 months they are in the UK. After their '3 months to live in another EEA country' has finished, if they don't then then have a right to reside in the UK because they aren't a Qualified Person, then the UK has no duty to pay them any benefits and won't, and that includes benefits including child related benefits.  The EU retrospective rule means that it includes those who did have right to the UK and then lost it as they ceased to be a qualified person.

Even if your wife was a qualified person under free movement rules, some EU qualified persons are now no longer allowed UK benefits i.e. self sufficients, students, those who don't work in the UK, most jobseekers, those who don't earn enough money each week to pay NICs ect.


Not only can you not claim UK benefits but from what you have said, do you realise that your German wife can't use the UK's health service for free either? The same for your children if they aren't in the UK on Tier 2 dependant visas. Those of your family in the UK on a Tier 2 visa or Tier 2 dependant visa can use the NHS for free, while those that aren't will need to pay the NHS. They can use their German EHICs to pay the NHS and the NHS will then send the bill/s to Germany for them to pay.

 

This is grim news.  Thank you for your answer Sirius.

I have just received word from HMRC that my wife does not have the right to reside in the UK, and now I am wondering if this applies to my children as well.

Man, talk about having the rug pulled out from under me.

This is grim news.  Thank you for your answer Sirius.

I have just received word from HMRC that my wife does not have the right to reside in the UK, and now I am wondering if this applies to my children as well.

Man, talk about having the rug pulled out from under me.

Are your children in the UK on the UK Tier 2 dependant visas? If they are then they have permission to reside in the UK while your visa is valid, to attend UK state schools and use the NHS for free.

If they entered on German or US passports then they are visiting. The German passport will give them 3 months and the US one will have a date stamped in it.

Thousands of EEAs and their dependants are in the UK when they don't have a right to reside and the UK is getting tough on these because they cause a problem with UK schools, housing, welfare, NHS, jobs, services, roads ect. The UK are are talking about deporting but at the moment they starting by removing all benefits including housing and child related benefit, no matter how many years they have been claiming and stopping them from using the NHS for free.

From 2015, their new systems will be able to check and bill for the NHS (it was too easy to abuse the NHS before) if the EEA citizen is not a worker qualified person (earning enough each week to pay NICs) or on UK JSA benfits (now limited to 3? months).

This NHS checking that is now coming in is why you urgently need to sort out full health insurance for all your family that aren't on a Tier 2 dependant visas. The UK won't care if you pay for their treatment and medication using a German EHICs to pay as long as the UK doesn't pay, although you will have to pay for anything the German EHIC won't cover.

At least you are now aware that your wife (and children?) don't have a right to reside. Some non-EUs citizens seem to think that if they arrive in the UK with a EEA citizen that their EEA permit then allows them to reside in the UK for years, little realising that if their EEA citizen is out of work and job seeking in the UK for too long, then they and their dependants lost their right to reside. With the new NHS checking by looking to see if the EEA citizen is in work in the UK, the first they might know about it is when they are told they will have to pay for their healthcare. Before the NHS checking, the first they knew about it was when they thought they had got Permanent Residence in the UK and applied for it, only to be refused.

The new Exit checks and Biometric Residence Permits are going to be making it easier to block those who don't have legal status to be in the UK.

UK are are talking about deporting

Correcting my post. Read posts on another forum where EU citizens and their family members have already been removed from the UK because the EU citizen failed to continue to exercise treaty rights. The link they posted.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/424570/Chapter_50_EEA__v7_EXT_20150428.pdf