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Wife refused HB because she is not working and not on JSA

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Comments

  • clemmatis
    clemmatis Posts: 3,168 Forumite
    edited 26 April 2013 at 11:07AM
    SnooksNJ wrote: »
    However, since this is a place of obtaining information would I be able to go to the country of your birth and demand entitlements and my rights to welfare?

    Are you an EEA national? If so, yes. UK citizens studying in EEA countries often benefit from lower or even zero fees, and sometimes, grants. The same applies, roughly speaking, to other benefits, for non-students.

    ETA I've just seen your point about non-EU spouses of British nationals. Yes. That is unfair. Of course, it's a consequence of the UK's discriminatory immigration policy.
  • dktreesea
    dktreesea Posts: 5,736 Forumite
    SnooksNJ wrote: »
    Spouses of British Citizens cannot access public funds. Non EU spouses married to EU citizens are treated the same as British Citizens when it comes to public funds. They also don't have to pay for a visa whereas Non EU citizens married to British Citizens pay thousands for their visa's.
    When I went to College(or Uni) parents paid for housing and the student got a part time job for beer money.

    That's a bit misleading. Spouses of British citizens with indefinite leave to remain have a full settlement visa and can access benefits from the day they arrive, subject to habitual residence requirements if they also want to claim housing benefit. Usually what happens is the British citizen is the primary claimant for the whole family.

    As to non EU citizens married to British citizens having to pay thousands for their visas, there's nothing to stop the British citizen taking their spouse, settling somewhere else in Europe for a year, getting an EEA family permit for their family, and then moving to Britain just like any other European citizen married to a non EU national, i.e. with no visa fees and full working and benefit rights for both the EU national and the spouse. Yes, Border Control over here don't like it when Brits do that. Of course not - it depletes their coffers.

    I wish all Brits wanting to come home would follow this path. It's about time we stopped fleecing british citizens for their non EEA national spouses when we don't ask anyone else in Europe to pay for them to come here.
  • clemmatis wrote: »
    Scotland complicates the matter because of its fees policy, but the principle -- EEA nationals pay home student fees, generally -- is the same.

    The same with the non-EUs who enter the UK under the EU system: home fees.
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • clemmatis wrote: »
    Are you an EEA national? If so, yes. UK citizens studying in EEA countries often benefit from lower or even zero fees, and sometimes, grants. The same applies, roughly speaking, to other benefits, for non-students.

    I think what they were trying to say was that many other EU countries don't offer the overly generous welfare system that the UK has. Hence the OP saying that EU citizens can claim welfare from his country, may be a moot point.
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • neverdespairgirl
    neverdespairgirl Posts: 16,501 Forumite
    LittleMax wrote: »
    Absolutely not ... universities charge foreign students far more than the fees British students pay. British universities actively market themselves abroad to bring in this money that they depend on. If they did not have the foreign students, many of the courses would disappear from the prospectus.


    This poster is an EU / EEA national. So domestic fees apply, not the higher ones.
    ...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
  • SnooksNJ
    SnooksNJ Posts: 829 Forumite
    dktreesea wrote: »
    That's a bit misleading. Spouses of British citizens with indefinite leave to remain have a full settlement visa and can access benefits from the day they arrive, subject to habitual residence requirements if they also want to claim housing benefit. Usually what happens is the British citizen is the primary claimant for the whole family.

    As to non EU citizens married to British citizens having to pay thousands for their visas, there's nothing to stop the British citizen taking their spouse, settling somewhere else in Europe for a year, getting an EEA family permit for their family, and then moving to Britain just like any other European citizen married to a non EU national, i.e. with no visa fees and full working and benefit rights for both the EU national and the spouse. Yes, Border Control over here don't like it when Brits do that. Of course not - it depletes their coffers.

    I wish all Brits wanting to come home would follow this path. It's about time we stopped fleecing british citizens for their non EEA national spouses when we don't ask anyone else in Europe to pay for them to come here.
    I think ILR takes 5 years now. I like the idea of Brits going the EEA route with their non EU spouse but most people have a job and a house so it might not be worth the hassle.
  • pmlindyloo
    pmlindyloo Posts: 13,099 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Really interesting ariticle here (although it is dated 2011 so things might have changd)

    http://www.ftb.eu.com/local-government-pdf/ftb-september-2011-de-right-to-reside-29-final(1).pdf
  • dktreesea
    dktreesea Posts: 5,736 Forumite
    SnooksNJ wrote: »
    I think ILR takes 5 years now. I like the idea of Brits going the EEA route with their non EU spouse but most people have a job and a house so it might not be worth the hassle.

    I think that may just be for people who haven't been married for two years and/or can't show sufficient funds to support themselves and their spouses for two years before coming back. This part of it really annoys me, because British citizens who have paid into the system at some point should, imho, have first dibs on being able to get benefits.

    The idea that you can't come back - if you are wanting to bring a non-EA national spouse - unless you can prove you can support yourself and your family sticks in my craw. Especially as any other EEA national with a non EEA national spouse has to do no such thing AND can claim for their whole family, including the non EEA national spouse, upon arrival, provided they have an EEA family card. It's well worth going to live in a nice place with sun and very cheap to live, e.g. Bulgaria, for a year just to not pay what is really a tax on returning British citizens.
  • MissMoneypenny
    MissMoneypenny Posts: 5,324 Forumite
    edited 26 April 2013 at 3:41PM
    dktreesea wrote: »
    I think that may just be for people who haven't been married for two years and/or can't show sufficient funds to support themselves and their spouses for two years before coming back.

    Snooks is correct: it is now 5 years before ILR for the spouse of an British citizen. Too many were coming in, getting divorced after 18 months, getting ILR and then bringing in another non EU. And that 2 years you seem to be talking about, was actually 4 years of being married abroad: not that it matters as that too has been removed as it was unfair that someone who had never paid any taxes to the UK, should have immediate access to UK welfare in their own name. Plus the Brit now has to show they can support their non-EU spouse by earning at least £18,600pa. This is all UK immigration rules.

    I'm all for the above so that they support the person they want to sponsor, but what is wrong is that it isn't an even playing field.

    The EU says that an EEA citizen can claim UK welfare when they arrive, can bring in a non EU spouse with all their non EEA siblings and parents; even if the EEA citizen can't afford to keep them; as they can all have welfare and home fees university too. If the marriage fails but they drag the divorce out to 2 years after they arrived in the UK, then the non EU can stay in the UK too.

    A British student who was moved abroad (outside the EU) by their parents, cannot get home university fees until they have resided in the UK for the 3 years before they go to university; regardless of how much taxes their parents paid into the UK. So we find ourselves in the situation where some Brits have to pay international fees for university in the UK, while those using the EEA route to the UK, are getting home fees. Even Boris declared the UK should get a rebate from the EU because of all the EEA route students in London being subsidised by the UK taxpayer.
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • shedboy94
    shedboy94 Posts: 929 Forumite
    SnooksNJ wrote: »
    OK fair enough not to judge the wisdom of making babies while a student and not employed. However, since this is a place of obtaining information would I be able to go to the country of your birth and demand entitlements and my rights to welfare? Because I sometimes wonder if the UK and the country of birth, the United States, are the only saps that accept this sense of entitlement?

    You could easily go to another EEA country and claim any benefits you are entitled to.......however the UK has one of the most, if not THE most generous benefit system, hence why so many EEA nationals, and asylum seekers come here.
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