Foreign Mother Living Abroad, is she entitled?

jfke

Hello,

My friend is an Argentinian national living in Buenos Aires. She was previously living in the UK for 3 years on an EU (Italian) passport she was awarded via her Mother's nationality. Whilst here she had a British boyfriend with whom she got pregnant. They didn't get on and halfway through the pregnancy she left back to be with her family in Argentina. He was there for the birth of the child and gave her a payment of around £1000. Since then he has regularly made monthly payments of £200 towards the upkeep of his child.

So far so good? Well she fears that he could renege on this agreement at any time and wants to get the CSA involved. The child doesn't have a British passport or birth certificate as yet. She is thinking of moving to the UK in the near future and my questions are thus;

Is she currently entitled to CSA intervention even though she lives in South America and the child was born there?

Would she be entitled to CSA intervention if she moved back to Britain?

I know one of the motivations for moving back to Argentina was that despite being on an EU passport the benefits agency decreed she was not eligible for Income Support because she did not fill the residency criteria (5 uniterrupted years residency in the UK). Apparently she had the right to reside here but not for benefits purposes because of her pregnancy placing her outside the labour market. This is standard practice for all European unemployed pregnant women and perfectly legal despite how odd it sounds.

chall1964

The CSA cannot make a maintenance calculation unless the person with care, non resident parent and qualifying child are all habitually resident in the UK.

jfke

Ah, thanks for the response.

So she's screwed for the CSA then until she builds up 5 years of residency in the UK to qualify as "habitually resident".

She has been offered a job in academia and may return to England so that's why I was trying to sound this out for her.

Hopefully the Father will just continue to pay the £50 a week as he has done so far regardless of any change in her circumstances as she has no fall back. Presumably once she hits that "habitually resident" status she cannot make claims for any arrears if in that five year period?

Edit - Just to clarify, this is not to "bash" the absent Father as he has been nothing but exemplary. It's just the fear of "what if?" that motivates her.

AnxiousMum

She might want to look up the REMO rules - if there is a reciprocating agreement between the two countries then she can apply in court in her home country, get an interim order, which will then be processed in court here and made enforceable in the UK shoud the father not pay. But..given that he's doing his thing - she's probably best not to rock the boat and keep it civil. A couple of problems she may have - if she wants the child to have a British passport, she's going to need him to 'agree' to being the father, or go through dna tests etc. Or, is he already named on the child's birth certificate? You mention she doesn't have a UK birth certificate - she won't get a UK one if the child wasn't born here, but do believe that if the father is British national, the child will be entitled to a British passport - as long as he agrees he is the father.