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

MissMoneypenny

Dunroamin wrote: »

EU students are eligible to take out tuition fee loans but are ineligible to take out a maintenance loan or receive a grant.

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/student_support_england.php#eea_migrant_workers

Category 2: EU nationals and family living in the EEA and Switzerland

If you satisfy the conditions under this category only, you are eligible only for a loan to pay your tuition fees. If you satisfy the conditions under Category 3 or Category 4 or Category 5, you will be eligible for full Student Support which also includes loans for living costs and certain supplementary grants, so you should check the conditions for these other categories first.

Dunroamin wrote: »

As full time students, however, they are ineligible to claim benefits.

That's because the UK citizen is unable to claim benefits as a full time student.

If they are a single parent EEA citizen and at a UK university, then doesn't EU laws say they are able to claim welfare and other grants from the UK too?

Dunroamin

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/student_support_england.php#eea_migrant_workers

Category 2: EU nationals and family living in the EEA and Switzerland

If you satisfy the conditions under this category only, you are eligible only for a loan to pay your tuition fees. If you satisfy the conditions under Category 3 or Category 4 or Category 5, you will be eligible for full Student Support which also includes loans for living costs and certain supplementary grants, so you should check the conditions for these other categories first.




That's because the UK citizen is unable to claim benefits as a full time student.

If they are a single parent EEA citizen and at a UK university, then doesn't EU laws say they are able to claim welfare and other grants from the UK too?

Thank you for amplifying my statement re EU students and maintenance funding. Also, you're right about the reason that they can't claim which is because UK students can only claim in certain, limited circumstances.

MissMoneypenny

Dunroamin wrote: »

Thank you for amplifying my statement re EU students and maintenance funding. Also, you're right about the reason that they can't claim which is because UK students can only claim in certain, limited circumstances.

You said that EU students are "ineligible to take out a maintenance loan or receive a grant." Yet as that linked showed, some EEA students and non-EUs using the EU route, are "eligible for full Student Support which also includes loans for living costs and certain supplementary grants".

epitome

shedboy94 wrote: »

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.

That's not true at all. To clarify, this bit is true:
You could easily go to another EEA country and claim any benefits you are entitled to....

But this bit:
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
is not true., it is true for long term UK British residents i.e. you and me, for us it is a very generous system - too generous by a lot of peoples view. But for people arriving from the EU.... The UK is not a benefits haven, The UK is unique in Europe that we break European law, we refuse benefits to new arrivals -this is against the law- and the UK has been taken to the European Commission on this and lost and been ordered by the European Commision to change or face substantial fines, so far the UK has not changed our benefit rules.

We have strict rules for JSA claimants who have just arrived which disqualifies all new arrivals except for conts based.
We have even stricter rules for ESA recent arrival claimants because they are not seeking work, they may have got JSA and been told by the Jobcentre to sign off JSA and claim ESA but when they do they find they can't get ESA because of the stricter requirements.

If you or I went to France or Germany tomorrow we would have no problem getting income related benefits and they pay more too, in France you get about £91 week single person and you get DOUBLE - £182 for a couple. In the UK we only pay £71 single and £112 for a couple.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

havent read the rest of the thread.

im not being prejudice in any way, the op seems confused with claim and entitlement, i cleared up the fact the OP seems to think that they are entitled based on the fact they are entitled to claim.

even if OP satisfied many criteria and legislation ultimately his income would be calculated into the entitlement of £250 per week, and savings combined, wich is £1000 per month personal debt, outgoings etc is not taken into account.

you can claim HB based on zero income and zero entitlement to JSA etc, but when you have a provider in the household like OP then these are calculated as its means tesed benefit i beleive the OP just tips the scale to non entitlement to HB due to income.
this is where i think the OP and his wife are not entitled to any HB help.

Dunroamin

epitome wrote: »

If you or I went to France or Germany tomorrow we would have no problem getting income related benefits and they pay more too, in France you get about £91 week single person and you get DOUBLE - £182 for a couple. In the UK we only pay £71 single and £112 for a couple.

I don't know about Germany but I have friends who live in France and you'd have more chance of getting blood out of the proverbial stone than you would have getting unemployment benefits in France if you'd just moved there, regardless of what mught be the theory of it!

seven-day-weekend

epitome wrote: »

That's not true at all. To clarify, this bit is true:
You could easily go to another EEA country and claim any benefits you are entitled to....

But this bit:
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
is not true., it is true for long term UK British residents i.e. you and me, for us it is a very generous system - too generous by a lot of peoples view. But for people arriving from the EU.... The UK is not a benefits haven, The UK is unique in Europe that we break European law, we refuse benefits to new arrivals -this is against the law- and the UK has been taken to the European Commission on this and lost and been ordered by the European Commision to change or face substantial fines, so far the UK has not changed our benefit rules.

We have strict rules for JSA claimants who have just arrived which disqualifies all new arrivals except for conts based.
We have even stricter rules for ESA recent arrival claimants because they are not seeking work, they may have got JSA and been told by the Jobcentre to sign off JSA and claim ESA but when they do they find they can't get ESA because of the stricter requirements.

If you or I went to France or Germany tomorrow we would have no problem getting income related benefits and they pay more too, in France you get about £91 week single person and you get DOUBLE - £182 for a couple. In the UK we only pay £71 single and £112 for a couple.

I haven't read the rest of the thread either but I do know if you arrive in Spain as immigrant with no income you get NOTHING.. NADA. Even native Spaniards don't get anything for very long. So our system is very generous compared to some.

FBaby

The issue here is not about whether the OP's wife is entitled to benefits. Although having the right to reside in the UK doesn't always mean you are entitled to benefits (there is a difference between right to reside, and passing the habitual residency test, which gives access to benefits), in this instance, it would seem that the council have accepted that she did meet the criteria.

The issue is that they are claiming that as he is a student and not entitled, she needs to be claiming JSA to be entitled to HB. I don't know whether this is up to the local council to decide or not, but I have found this from suffolkcoastal:

You can claim Housing Benefit if:
You are on Income Support or claiming Job Seekers Allowance.
You are on a low income.

Most full-time students cannot claim Housing Benefit unless they are:
Pensioners.
Lone parents.
Disabled.
Getting Income Support.
Getting income based Job Seekers Allowance.
Parents with dependant children or are responsible for a child boarded out with them.

So it would appear that claiming JSA is a condition if not on a low income, which with the OP's grant would not fall in that category.

All they can do is for her to claim JSA, or ESA until the child is born, and then they can get everything, as the British system so strongly support that having a child should open up to a life of comfort without having to work.

Dunroamin

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

You said that EU students are "ineligible to take out a maintenance loan or receive a grant." Yet as that linked showed, some EEA students and non-EUs using the EU route, are "eligible for full Student Support which also includes loans for living costs and certain supplementary grants".

I wasn't disagreeing with you which is why I thanked you for adding further information.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

FBaby wrote: »

The issue here is not about whether the OP's wife is entitled to benefits. Although having the right to reside in the UK doesn't always mean you are entitled to benefits (there is a difference between right to reside, and passing the habitual residency test, which gives access to benefits), in this instance, it would seem that the council have accepted that she did meet the criteria.

The issue is that they are claiming that as he is a student and not entitled, she needs to be claiming JSA to be entitled to HB. I don't know whether this is up to the local council to decide or not, but I have found this from suffolkcoastal:

You can claim Housing Benefit if:
You are on Income Support or claiming Job Seekers Allowance.
You are on a low income.

Most full-time students cannot claim Housing Benefit unless they are:
Pensioners.
Lone parents.
Disabled.
Getting Income Support.
Getting income based Job Seekers Allowance.
Parents with dependant children or are responsible for a child boarded out with them.

So it would appear that claiming JSA is a condition if not on a low income, which with the OP's grant would not fall in that category.

All they can do is for her to claim JSA, or ESA until the child is born, and then they can get everything, as the British system so strongly support that having a child should open up to a life of comfort without having to work.

As someone who deals with people from abroad all the time

The O/Ps wife would appear to have been classed as a Person From Abroad (PFA)because she isn't in receipt of IS JSA(IB) ESA(IR) or Pension Credit and therefore denied Housing Benefit.

However you don't need to be in receipt of a qualifying social security benefit if you are a person from abroad to claim Housing Benefit:-

1) If a claimant is a non EEA National...

2) Is exempt from Immigration Controls...

3) Has right of residence...

4) Passes HRT...

They are entitled to claim HB/LCTS.

The O/Ps claim hasn't even got as far as being processed. As his partner isn't getting a qualifying social security benefit it would appear the benefits office are treating her as a PFA. From the information given by the O/P his partner meets points 1 to 4 above and therefore should be able to claim HB/LCTS.

The O/P can't claim HB but his partner can with him as her partner.