Failed habitual residency test

missapril75

eadieb wrote: »

we helped her appeal and make a fresh application for JSA. some benefits advice we read, seemed to urge a person to continue to make new JSA applications as it may be that the way the person is viewed alters following a few weeks.

Dead right.

It may make them change their original decision. At the very least it's likely to result in a claim succeeding for a date earlier than if it had simply been left until the "qualifying date" wrongly imposed.

The person we were assisting was told to claim income support by the job centre but this claim failed and everything we read showed no entitlement to claim income support.

This goes back to the days when Job Centre and Benefits agency were separate departments and JC staff considered that "if all else failed, go and try Income Support" as that benefit was often seen as the last possibility; a sort of catch those falling through cracks.

All the same department now but many of the staff are still in familiar roles and not cognisant with other benefit rules.

I'm sure there was stuff we read that seemed to indicate that the applicants children being in school was a key factor in establishing residency.

You are correct. Sounds like you did good work:)

von

Your daughter will not be entitled to Income Support as she is not a single parent; she cannot make a single claim for IS or for JSA as she is living with a partner - please don't let them encourage her to do this. She must claim for her partner if she is living with him.

She is not currently receiving JSA because she has been treated as not habitually resident in the UK because of the length of her residence in Spain. She can reapply for JSA at any time and as often as she wants; each time the Decision Maker at the Benefit Centre will make a decision as to whether she is habitually resident from the date of each claim.

I suggest that she phones the Benefit Centre tomorrow and advise them that she wants to reclaim JSA - they will either send her a claim form JSA1 or JSA3 to reclaim. She should also ask them to send a decision letter regarding her previous claim so that she can appeal.

In the meantime she should continue to sign on every fortnight, complete the JSA1 or 3 when received and return it with a letter stating that if her JSA is disallowed again she wants to appeal and give reasons why she feels that she is habitually resident.

By the way when the Decision Maker decides that she is habitually resident in the UK she will be paid for herself and her Spanish partner because he is an EU citizen and has recourse to public funds.

jfdi

Don't forget tho - that they should both be able to claim the Spanish equivalent to JSA (conts) as (I presume) they were in Spain. So their situation, financially, should be similar.

It's only the means-tested benefits that have HRT applied IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES.

von

jfdi wrote: »

Don't forget tho - that they should both be able to claim the Spanish equivalent to JSA (conts) as (I presume) they were in Spain. So their situation, financially, should be similar.

It's only the means-tested benefits that have HRT applied IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES.

They would have to have been registered as unemployed jobseekers in Spain before moving to the UK

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/job-search/transferring-unemployment-benefits/index_en.htm

jfdi

jfdi wrote: »

they should both be able to claim the Spanish equivalent to JSA (conts) as (I presume) they were in Spain.

That's what I meant, even if it didn't read like that!

shazm.69

She has now received more forms from the child benefit office asking for more information. So hopefully that will be sorted soon. And then maybe everything else will fall into place. Thanks for all the advice