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

princessdon

It's very simple

ring up the offices responsible for Housing Benefit and Council Tax office and inform them that the household now has capital of over £16K. They will then deal with her claim.

That is nothing to do with immigration - It is the same for UK citizens. Ie if I married and my new husband moved in with capital exceeding that value I'd be treat the same, it is a rule for UK benefit claimants (the issue of how immigration treat this is another issue entirely)

MissMoneypenny

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

I am starting to get the suspicion with all of my assets I feel that her benefit could be reduced to zero

That feeling is correct. You're there now, so you are expected to keep your wife and her family as you have the means to do so; instead of benefits (the UK taxpayer) continuing to keep her. You will all still be allowed to live in her HA house and rents in these type of properties are much cheaper than private lets.

She would still be able keep some benefits, like child benefit and (I assume) child tax credits.

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

In case anyone's wondering why I just don't cash it out and live high on the hog off my savings is that I don't anticipate having any access at all to a government pension since I'm working towards self-employment and this is my retirement nest egg. The rest of is capital to start my businesses.

Income based benefits are for those in need/those that have no assets. Benefits cannot be claimed to live on, instead of using a nest egg.

It's a different government now and seem to be getting quite keen on sharing information between departments, to prevent fraud and visa breaches.

MissMoneypenny

princessdon wrote: »

It's very simple

ring up the offices responsible for Housing Benefit and Council Tax office and inform them that the household now has capital of over £16K. They will then deal with her claim.

That is nothing to do with immigration - It is the same for UK citizens. Ie if I married and my new husband moved in with capital exceeding that value I'd be treat the same, it is a rule for UK benefit claimants (the issue of how immigration treat this is another issue entirely)

The above is what you need to do.

Jumbo_Cod

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

It's quite clear with income based benefits, as there is a cutoff at 16k. That over 16k you have means your wife can no longer claim income based benefits; like her housing benefit and council tax benefit and any other income based benefits she claims.

When she applied for benefits, she signed to say she would advise the various benefit departments of any changes and she is required to tell them all that she and you (as a couple) have more than 16k now. Not to do so would be fraud (as she is claiming something she is not entitled to have now) and all her income based benefits should be stopped now. The longer you leave it, the bigger the overpayments will be that she will have to pay back.

At the moment, it seems she is claiming benefits that she is no longer entitled to and getting extra for you too, even though you visa states you cannot have public funds.



The get out is that it is not up to the council to ask what their capital is, but it is up to to the claimant (Jumbo Cod's wife) to inform them that she now has his capital with her new husband of over 16k.

We don't know if she's not entitled to them, and we must know for sure what's counted and what's not. For example if private personal pension funds are not counted...and moneys used towards living expenses as well, well that complicates it further. We're not going to phone up council and in so many words tell them to cut everything off from my wife based on advice garnered from an internet forum.

The insinuation that we are committing fraud at the present or are too dumb to understand that we would be is insulting--do you think we're not going to do the right thing just because of the risk of losing benefits? Do you really have to go there? Fraud by definition is when you willingly deceive in order to obtain something. We know exactly what laws are concerning claiming what you're not entitled to.

Yes my visa states I can't get public funds--which I'm not doing. We declared my arrival and are reworking all of her credits.

We're going to see an expert at Citizen's Advice who deals with immigration AND benefits and has personally dealt with situations as our own and settle this one and for all.

Thank you for all your help. It is appreciated but at the end of the day we need a definitive answer from someone that works in the field, such as IAS. Like I found out when applying for my visa from internet forums, about half of the scary facts and advice simply turned out to not be true!

I'll be back after our appointment at CAB and update what the deal is.

Cheers!
JC

Voyager2002

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

We don't know if she's not entitled to them, and we must know for sure what's counted and what's not. For example if private personal pension funds are not counted...and moneys used towards living expenses as well, well that complicates it further. We're not going to phone up council and in so many words tell them to cut everything off from my wife based on advice garnered from an internet forum.

The insinuation that we are committing fraud at the present is insulting--do you think we're not going to do the right thing just because of the risk of losing benefits Do you really have to go there? Yes my visa states I can't get public funds--which I'm not doing. We declared my arrival and are reworking all of her credits.

We're going to see an expert at Citizen's Advice who deals with immigration AND benefits and has personally dealt with situations as our own and settle this one and for all.

Thank you for all your help. It is appreciated but at the end of the day we need a definitive answer from someone that works in the field, such as IAS. Like I found out when applying for my visa from internet forums, about half of the scary facts and advice simply turned out to not be true!

I'll be back after our appointment at CAB and update what the deal is.

Cheers!
JC

I appreciate that you have been totally honest, and you dislike the insinuation of fraud. However, the advice and warning that you have been given is entirely correct: if it were to come out that you had been receiving HB and CT Benefit while your household capital amounted to more than 16K, there would be a real possibility that you could be prosecuted for fraud.

MissMoneypenny

enabledebra wrote: »

Can't see why not- your income and capital is treated exactly the same as any claimant- British resident or not- plus you don't need to get entitlement to zero, just to where it was before you became part of the household.

It can't get back to that as before, she was claiming as a single parent and now they are a couple. To claim as a single would be benefit fraud.

As a couple, all their joint income and assets will count for income based benefits. The new husband has capital of over 16k, even when he excludes his 401 (if he is even allowed to even exclude this). Therefore, they are expected to use their significant savings, to support themselves now and are required to tell the relevant benefit departments that their capital exceeds 16k.

MissMoneypenny

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

The insinuation that we are committing fraud at the present or are too dumb to understand that we would be is insulting--do you think we're not going to do the right thing just because of the risk of losing benefits?

I appreciate you are trying to do the right thing, but as you seemed confused about the UKs benefits sytem, I was trying to explain how your savings count as capital for benefit purposes.

I realise too that this has shocked you, as you expected to keep your capital to start a business and for your wife to still keep her housing benefit and any other income based benefits she claims.

Jumbo_Cod wrote: »

Do you really have to go there? Fraud by definition is when you willingly deceive in order to obtain something. We know exactly what laws are concerning claiming what you're not entitled to.

All UK benefit claimants are well aware that they are required to report all changes that may affect their benefit entitlement.

pmlindyloo

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I appreciate you are trying to do the right thing, but as you seemed confused about the UKs benefits sytem, I was trying to explain how your savings count as capital for benefit purposes.

I realise too that this has shocked you, as you expected to keep your capital to start a business and for your wife to still keep her housing benefit and any other income based benefits she claims.



All UK benefit claimants are well aware that they are required to report all changes that may affect their benefit entitlement.

Have you read the entire thread or are you just reading parts of it?

If you read what the OP has written it is quite clear that he is trying to sort this out and has been entirely honest about his situation to all the 'officials' concerned.

He started this thread because he was concerned that the 'official' had got it wrong.

My understanding is that he has done extensive research on all this and only wants to do what is right.

He is getting confusing information from 'officals' and has sensibly booked an appointment with an expert to sort it out.

Your insinuation - 'as you expected to keep the capital to start a business' plus the assumption that he wanted his wife to stay on benefits is, in my opinion, rather insulting.

I hope that your post just came across badly and you did not mean to suggest that.

This seems a very complicated matter to me and it is obviously taking up a lot of the OP's time.

I wish the OP well and hope he can get a definite answer about all this.

MissMoneypenny

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Have you read the entire thread or are you just reading parts of it?

I have been reading all this thread all the time it has been going (about the only one I have) and I even re-opened it to reply to his query he asked me, as I missed his post before. Did you miss that?

Have you actually read the quote of mine that you quoted, in relation to the whole thread? It's quite clear as this story has unfolded that they have been trying to do the right thing and been getting the wrong information from their council. It's also clear that he didn't realise that his savings would be included in his wife's claim and JC has been methodically reading through all the links he has been given here to try to sort this out. Armed with all this knowledge, he is now going to the CAB as the information he got from his council, does not seem to be correct. Time will tell.

pmlindyloo wrote: »

He is getting confusing information from 'officals' and has sensibly booked an appointment with an expert to sort it out.

A lot of people have put links up on here for the OP to read; as I have seen you do too on other threads. Yet you refer to other posters in a derogatory manner, who put links to help, as "officals".

pmlindyloo

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I have been reading all this thread all the time it has been going (about the only one I have) and I even re-opened it to reply to his query he asked me, as I missed his post before. Did you miss that?

Have you actually read the quote of mine that you quoted, in relation to the whole thread? It's quite clear as this story has unfolded that they have been trying to do the right thing and been getting the wrong information from their council. It's also clear that he didn't realise that his savings would be included in his wife's claim and JC has been methodically reading through all the links he has been given here to try to sort this out. Armed with all this knowledge, he is now going to the CAB as the information he got from his council, does not seem to be correct. Time will tell.



A lot of people have put links up on here for the OP to read; as I have seen you do too on other threads. Yet you refer to other posters in a derogatory manner, who put links to help, as "officals".

You have misunderstood me I was not referring to other posters as 'officials' - I meant the people at the HB department, who may have given the worng information.

My apologies if this is how it read.

I am very aware that posters on here spend their valuable time trying to help people and put up links to help. I think this is a great site.

I also apologise for thinking that you hadn't read the whole thread.

My only point was that your post seemed to suggest that the OP was trying in some way to keep his savings for his business and also claim benefits that they weren't entitled to.

Now I know better