American Immigrant here on Spousal Visa-Can my spouse claim additional housing benefi

SandJ

The best thing to do is contact the Immigration Advisory Services because they are immigration lawyers and they know the law from both sides and should be able to give you accurate information.

princessdon

She is clearly currently on benefits - and the future of benefits and the entitlement to them is likely to change.

How can someone on benefits support another person when the amounts given are to quote on here "barely enough to survive". Hence I am assuming that OP has means to support himself.

Jumbo_Cod

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Able bodied people living on benefits could sponsor their foreign national partner to the UK under the last government, but this government have just stopped that with their immigration reforms, which aims to protect the welfare state. Those on certain disability benefits, are excluded from the new income rules.

The new immigration reforms take effect July 9th, 2012. Anybody who has started the spousal track prior to this date is grandfathered into the previous rules so it'll not affect us.

Jumbo_Cod

SandJ wrote: »

He wasn't saying his wife would always be on benefits, he was saying that she would always be entitled to them.

Thank you. That's exactly what I was saying. We're just getting started and she has kids and is working an entry level job so by law she's entitled to working tax credits. In terms of the housing benefit that will go down when I start working.

We're looking at the present and short term future at the moment as I've only been here 10 days and we want to make sure all of this stuff is on the legit.

Jumbo_Cod

princessdon wrote: »

She is clearly currently on benefits - and the future of benefits and the entitlement to them is likely to change.

How can someone on benefits support another person when the amounts given are to quote on here "barely enough to survive". Hence I am assuming that OP has means to support himself.

Her benefits don't have anything to do with her supporting me FYI. I'm OK in that department.

princessdon

It *could* have a bearning because if you have savings to support you then they would need to be declared and this can have an impact.

Jumbo_Cod

If that's the case then that's fine, we have everything budgeted out in case even they dropped to zero £.

But from what I saw on the credits renewal form they don't ask for savings at all--it's all income based. but I could be wrong, we haven't gotten the official paperwork yet.

MissMoneypenny

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

If that's the case then that's fine, we have everything budgeted out in case even they dropped to zero £.

But from what I saw on the credits renewal form they don't ask for savings at all--it's all income based. but I could be wrong, we haven't gotten the official paperwork yet.

Tax credits are the only income based welfare payments that aren't affected by savings at the moment. This anomaly is being corrected when the new, one income based welfare payment, Universal Credit comes in. However, her claim for tax credits now has to be in both names as she can't claim as a single parent anymore.

The other income based welfare payements she claims i.e. housing benefit, council tax benefit, are affected by your savings. If she claimed income support as a single parent, that will be affected too as she is no longer single. Your wife will be aware that she is required to inform all the various benefit departments of any change in circumstances.

If you aren't sure about any increase in benefit payments because you are there, then ask on the Claiming Benefits board on this site www.immigrationboards.com to ensure you don't breach your spouse visa.

MissMoneypenny

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

The new immigration reforms take effect July 9th, 2012. Anybody who has started the spousal track prior to this date is grandfathered into the previous rules so it'll not affect us.

True, you have got in under the previous government's immigration rules. But I was answering SandsJ who said she wasn't sure if she been allowed Indefinate Leave to Remain in the UK with neither of them working, as her husband was disabled. That's what I refering to when I said that the practice of able bodied people living on benefits, being allowed to sponsor a foreign spouse to the UK, is now being stopped by this government to protect the welfare state. The sponsors income requirement has been raised from benefit level of £111 odd per week (JSA couple rate) to a working wage level.

Under the new rules: a skilled foreign national can still enter the UK by being sponsored by a company for their work visa and marry someone on UK benefits, as that helps the welfare state too. Being sponsored by a company instead of spouse is a much safer route to UK citizenship for foreign nationals, in case their marriage breaks up. If they don't have the skills to get visa sponsorship from a company, then the able bodied benefit claimant sponsor, will now have to work if they want to sponsor a foreign national to UK citizenship

Jumbo_Cod

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Tax credits are the only income based welfare payments that aren't affected by savings at the moment. This anomaly is being corrected when the new, one income based welfare payment, Universal Credit comes in. However, her claim for tax credits now has to be in both names as she can't claim as a single parent anymore.

The other income based welfare payements she claims i.e. housing benefit, council tax benefit, are affected by your savings. If she claimed income support as a single parent, that will be affected too as she is no longer single. Your wife will be aware that she is required to inform all the various benefit departments of any change in circumstances.

If you aren't sure about any increase in benefit payments because you are there, then ask on the Claiming Benefits board on this site to ensure you don't breach your spouse visa.

Thank you--we appreciate your response!

This is extremely confusing. Why in the world would Town Hall just change her housing & council tax benefit without seeing a single piece of paper if this is the case?

We went in there and declared that I am now living in the household (as we told we were supposed to) and that was the end of it.

I pulled out the paperwork. Specifically this is the major change. last month she was listed as:

"Lone Parent between 18 and Pension £70"

Now the new letter printed out on the spot after we went there states:

"Couple with Person between 18 and Pension £110"

Those are not benefit amounts but some figure for calculation, the actual total housing + council tax benefit went up from about £83 to £100, increase of £17 per week.