Claiming Universal Credit after returning from abroad?

dylanotta

I'm a 20 year old British citizen (born here, lived here all of my life, UK passport etc) and at the moment i am claiming universal credit. I live with my grandparents so don't have the housing element or anything just standard jobseekers

In January I have the opportunity of going to Madrid for 3 months to undertake an aprenticeship/internship. Its something I am really interested in but would like clarification about reclaiming universal credit once i am back in the UK.

Are there any legal guidelines that could give me problems reclaiming once im back? I mean hopefully i won't have to but the reality is its probably highly likely i need the support until i find a job.

I found this on the citizens advice website

However, if you've recently returned to the UK after a period living outside of the common travel area, you may have to show that you satisfy the habitual residence test in order to claim certain means-tested benefits. You should not be subject to the test if you've simply been abroad on a long holiday. In these cases you should be treated as a 'returning resident'. However, if you've spent three months or more living or working abroad you could find yourself subject to the test when you return to the UK, particularly if you no longer have property or close family in the UK.

this bit in particular alarmed me saying i would potentially have to wait for 3 months to recieve any benefits? it says it is for JSA and my area is full service universal credit but i'm guessing it would still apply? any help is greatly appreciated. thanks

Rules that came into force on 1 January 2014 mean that, if you're claiming income-based jobseeker's allowance and do need to show that you are habitually resident, you cannot be viewed as habitually resident until you've been living in the UK or elsewhere in the common travel area for at least three months. This means that if you claim income-based jobseeker's allowance immediately on your return to the UK from outside this area you won't receive this benefit for at least three months.

TELLIT01

The solution which comes to mind is to keep the period abroad to just under 3 months if that is possible.

dylanotta

Not a possibility I'm afraid. Its a fixed contract from January 14th - April 19th

I'd love to go and do it but its not having the safety net of UC to return to that is putting me off. In an ideal world I'd come back and walk straight into a job, but I think to myself what if that doesn't happen? I'd be absoloutely screwed

konark

Can't you return to Blighty for a weekend in Feb or March?

dylanotta

Potentially....especially if the flights were cheap enough (they are cheap in advance) but would this be sufficent grounds to argue "I have not been living outside of the UK for 3 months or more"?

Seems like a loophole too good to be true?

huckster

It would be a Universal Credit claim and you would have an habitual residency test.

Not sure you would have to wait 3 months before being able to receive money. If you are on JSA at the moment, then register the apprenticeship details with JSA Work Coach and then DWP are fully aware of what you are up to. Then when you return, you claim UC and provide details of having told JSA Work Coach about the apprenticeship. A Decision Maker will see this and I can't see them denying you any UC payment for 3 months.

calcotti

[STRIKE]The second paragraph you quote refers to living in the UK or the common travel area. While in Madrid you will still be in the common travel area.[/STRIKE]

EDIT: TELLIT01 has corrected me below - please ignore this post.

TELLIT01

calcotti wrote: »

The second paragraph you quote refers to living in the UK or the common travel area. While in Madrid you will still be in the common travel area.

Unless Madrid has been moved to our islands it is not in the Common Travel Area. The CTA is :- The Common Travel Area (CTA; Irish: Comhlimist!ar Taistil) is an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included.

dylanotta

Yes I am currently on Universal Credit and although the quotes I am providing below refer to "JSA", I am sure that it is exactly the same for Universal Credit, right? Not allowed to post links so I have replaced the . with -

It overwhelmingly suggests as I first feared. that I wouldn't be able to receive any benefits for 3 months

If the EEA jobseeker (or British citizen returning from three months or more abroad) hasn't worked since arriving in the UK, a three month residency rule has been introduced. In order to make a JSA claim they will have to provide evidence of how long they have been living in the UK (or the Common Travel Area), for example, a travel document, utility bill or tenancy agreement, to show they have been living here for at least three months. If it is decided that there is not sufficient evidence they will not pass the Habitual Residence test.

www-turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Habitual-Residence-Test/What-are-the-two-parts-of-the-Habitual-Residence-T

for jobseeker’s allowance claims only, the claimant cannot be habitually resident during their first three months’ residence in the common travel area.

www-housing-rights.info/habitual-residence-test.php

It just appears to me as much as I would love to go to Madrid and take this opportunity, in the long term it is just not worth it. I have no savings or anything to rely on.

If I'm going to be subject to this HRT and be ineligble for benefits for 3 months I might aswell take an opportunity abroad for 12 months, it makes no difference. I just have to make sure I save enough money to survive upon my return until I get a job or UC

Gutted really, but I have to think is it worth it?

calcotti

Thanks for correcting me TELLIT01.

Papercl1p

dylanotta wrote: »

Yes I am currently on Universal Credit and although the quotes I am providing below refer to "JSA", I am sure that it is exactly the same for Universal Credit, right? Not allowed to post links so I have replaced the . with -

It overwhelmingly suggests as I first feared. that I wouldn't be able to receive any benefits for 3 months

That may be the case for JSA but it is NOT CORRECT when it comes to UC.

I know this is far too late to be of worth to the OP but seeing as this thread is high up in the search engine results for people wanting information on claiming Universal Credit after a period of time spent abroad, the information I can provide should be of use to many others who face similar circumstances or those who are returning with no means to support themselves once they get back in the UK.

Ok, here's the tl;dr on my situation:

My wife and I, both born and raised Brits, moved abroad nearly twenty years ago and ran our own business, raised a family and generally just got on with life. Unfortunately, due to various factors beyond our control, we found ourselves having to return to the UK last year, pretty much penniless and near-destitute, relying on family to get us home and give us an extremely cramped roof over our head while we could get back on our feet.

So, having been apprised of the situation regarding Universal Credit, in that it would take five weeks from the date of application to receive funds, my wife and I commenced the application process a little over a week after we landed back on home soil.

Following the extensive online form completion and innumerate visits, often repeating the same processes over and over again, to the nearest Job Center Plus, with passports and various proofs of identity concerning our status as British citizens, along with birth certificates et al. for our children, we were then told that the only thing they were waiting on was for a UC 'decision maker' to sign off on the 'Habitual Residency Test' (HRT) component of the application.

FOUR WEEKS on from the commencement of our Universal Credit application my wife and I received the usual 'UC Notification' email requiring us to log on to the digital platform to check an update and....

The decision-maker had marked us as having failed the HRT, resulting in our joint application being immediately denied and us no longer even able to communicate with our job coaches!

We'd provided all the proof they'd requested regarding having registered with a local GP, getting a UK bank account and that our children were now attending school in this country, pretty much everything one would expect would serve as evidence that we were, indeed, seeking to settle in the UK. But apparently the fact that we had applied so soon after we had returned, even thought the decision maker did not make this judgement until some month and a half after we'd arrived back, meant we were being denied access to UC in its entirety because we had not been in the country for 'an appreciable period' of time when we began our claim, albeit we were advised we could start a new application which would likely be accepted, with yet another five-week wait to receive any benefits of course.

I'll tl;dr the rest of the process:

1. We requested a 'mandatory reconsideration' of that decision which was subsequently denied, even though we provided them with correspondence from the good people at CPAG (Child Protection Action Group) who verified that the decision was incorrect as there was no specific time period mandated and that, unlike JSA which did stipulate a 3-month common-travel-area residency, Universal Credit did not, they upheld the original decision.
2. We then requested it go to Tribunal
3. Nine months later I attend the Tribunal hearing, and win.

The judge ruled that as my wife and I were returning British citizens (as opposed to foreign persons seeking to settle in this country), then Case Law CIS 1304/97 CJSA 5394/98 was applicable, namely, that

'residence for an appreciable period of time' is not necessary to establish habitual residence'

we needed only to have provided proof of an intent to settle which we had more than satisfied with the documented evidence which had been provided during the original application process.

So, don't let them tell you otherwise. As a Brit returning to the UK from having lived abroad, you are NOT REQUIRED to have to be resident for a length of time before being eligible for Universal Credit.


Don't get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful to have had a social safety net to fall back on when we returned to the UK, but the sheer enormity of the stress we were put through during this process after having the rug pulled out from under us so abruptly over this HRT, cannot be overstated and it was, as it turned out, entirely unwarranted and unnecessary.