Refused child tax credits because hubby is a foreign national!

jak

I am English and have always paid my taxes. My husband is from New Zealand and is currently awaiting his spousal visa (this cost us £400 and it has currently taken them over a year to even look at the paper work!) Our income this year is approx. 16K so we would get nearly full tax credits. However, we cannot get them becuase he is not English. We would also get help with food vouchers and the surestart grant for our son who is 14 weeks. I can't go back to work unless we get working tax credit etc. which I cannot get whilst with my husband.
The CTC people on the phone said to split up, him to move out and then i'd get cTC!!!!
Am horrified- and I love my husband- so this is obviously not an option!!!
Any ideas to get around this? Or any help or advise as to any benefits we'd get would be great! We get around £800pcm in wages from my husbands job.

Thanks for any help you could give us!
J
x

zappster1966

jak wrote: »

The CTC people on the phone said to split up, him to move out and then i'd get cTC!!!!

The adviser said nothing of the sort. No civil servant in HMRC would've given you such ridiculous advice.

I don't doubt you're facing difficulties but embellishing your account with such fanciful nonsense does you few favours.

Hopefully a tax credit expert will be around shortly to assist.

[Deleted User]

Who told you that you could not claim Tax Credits? If it was the TCO adviser they are wrong.

As long as you have recourse to public funds you WILL be able to claim tax credits as a couple.

It takes a bit longer to process because your partner is not a UK national but you cannot be "penalised" because of who you decide to have as a partner.

Call up to request a claim pack and if you are told that you cannot claim because your partner has no recourse to public funds you should demand to speak to a manager. You should complain about the advice given by the adviser(s) as they obviously need further training.

I agree with Zappster - no adviser would tell you to seperate from your husband. If you put the words in to their mouth this is different. Asking if you would be able to claim if you seperated and the adviser saying yes is not telling you to seperate.

jak

Actually you are wrong. That is exactly what happened. I am not embelleshing or making things up. I thought the idea of this site was for advice, not abuse. Your comments are both unkind and unhelpful.
I did not ask if I could claim if we seperated. I was told that was the only way to claim!
I'm really upset now. Thanks a lot.

iwanttosave_2

zappster1966 wrote: »

The adviser said nothing of the sort. No civil servant in HMRC would've given you such ridiculous advice.

I don't doubt you're facing difficulties but embellishing your account with such fanciful nonsense does you few favours.

Hopefully a tax credit expert will be around shortly to assist.

I've been told this before, it does happen.

It also got hinted at of how better off I would be on income support as a single parent at the jobcenter when my OH lost his job.

tigtag02

zappster1966 wrote: »

The adviser said nothing of the sort. No civil servant in HMRC would've given you such ridiculous advice.

I don't doubt you're facing difficulties but embellishing your account with such fanciful nonsense does you few favours.

Hopefully a tax credit expert will be around shortly to assist.

How rude are you

OP: Dear helpful MSE'ers, please can you help, I was told *this*.

YOU: Liar!!

I cannot beleive that, it may be the case that any HMRC official SHOULDN'T be spouting that kind of crap but I guarantee you that crap my dear, some of them do spout.

I'm sorry I dont actually have any advice OP but I could hold my tonuge at that rudness!! (even if I did stoop tp their level )

PasturesNew

I saw this on the TV in the last 10 days. Somebody (from the Govt?) had spent some time in a claim office and sat beside the person doing the job and witnessed them telling people they'd get more money if they split up.

Might have been Prescott, but I could be wrong. But it was somebody "of note", not a journo.

Edit: I remember now, it was Cameron that said it.

jak

Thank you very much. I'm glad it's not just me who thinks they're really rude!
I really appreciate your kind words!
X

hotblu

jak wrote: »

I am English and have always paid my taxes. My husband is from New Zealand and is currently awaiting his spousal visa (this cost us £400 and it has currently taken them over a year to even look at the paper work!) Our income this year is approx. 16K so we would get nearly full tax credits. However, we cannot get them becuase he is not English. We would also get help with food vouchers and the surestart grant for our son who is 14 weeks. I can't go back to work unless we get working tax credit etc. which I cannot get whilst with my husband.
The CTC people on the phone said to split up, him to move out and then i'd get cTC!!!!
Am horrified- and I love my husband- so this is obviously not an option!!!
Any ideas to get around this? Or any help or advise as to any benefits we'd get would be great! We get around £800pcm in wages from my husbands job.

Thanks for any help you could give us!
J
x

Hello Jak,

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I work for the Tax Credits Helpline (and have done so for the last 3.5 years). The advice you have been given is incorrect. You need to phone the helpline asap. You need to request an application pack. The advisor will go through an eligibility/entitlement calculator, when they ask if your husband is subject to immigration control you answer NO (Even if on his visa it states he has no recourse to public funds), please answer no. The reason for this is because you ARE a UK national, this means both applicants in a joint claim are treated as UK nationals for the purposes of Tax Credits. Here is the link from HMRC website...

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/arrivals-uk.htm

If you go approx 2/3 of the page down it states "Sometimes if you're subject to immigration control you might still able to claim tax credits, for example a couple and only one of you is subject to immigration control" & "If you're a couple and one of you is subject to immigration control, you're both treated as not subject to immigration control for tax credits."

Once you have recieved the claim form fill it in asap and again make sure you tick to say both of you are NOT subject to immigration control. Once your claim has been processed and you recieve an award notice it will show the period it covers, as your child is already 14 weeks old you will only get your claim backdated 3 months automatically. You then have 30 days to appeal that award notice to request further backdate (I WOULD NOT advise attaching a letter requesting additional backdate with your claim). Get the claim in payment first and once it has backdated the 3 months and you get the award notice follow the appeals procedure.

I hope this helps and if you have any problems PM me.

Hotblu

Ps, I know this is going to sound really bad (and cocky lol), but unless you are lucky enough to get through to an experienced advisor who doesn't care about their call handling times (me lol) then the chances are you will be mis advised. So always check the website for HMRC.

cw18

hotblu wrote: »

Ps, I know this is going to sound really bad (and cocky lol), but unless you are lucky enough to get through to an experienced advisor who doesn't care about their call handling times (me lol) then the chances are you will be mis advised. So always check the website for HMRC.

I must have got through to one such lady last week 'cos she was brilliant She could tell I wasn't 100% convinced that we wouldn't get some of the money claimed back at renewal time, so when I said something about "so as long as I keep the date and time of this call I can prove I told you (menaing the organisation) of the changes in income" she also voluntarily told me her name (again - she had introduced herself on answering my call), and also spelt it for me a she has an unusual spelling of a 'common' name.

Must admit I've had a mix of people when I've called, but most have been really helpful

I,M_SAD

Never rung tax credits with a N.Z husband,not nationalised,however if you worked,would,nt you receive maternity pay,your child only 14 weeks old?If you intending on returning to work and you are British I don,t see how £8000 Pa from your husband is stopping your claim,,its,a low wage,I am sure unless I am well off the mark you will get childcare paid for to assist you with returning to work.