Thanks for the reply

Who do you think we should get legal advice from?

I wrote to UKBA and HMRC before claiming and UKBA wrote back and said that:

A person subject to immigration control is not considered as accessing public funds if it is their partner who is receiving the funds they are entitled to.

Child and working tax credits are claimed jointly by couples. If only one member of a couple is subject to immigration control, then for tax credits purposes, neither are treated as being subject to immigration control.

If you are in any doubt you should contact the department or agency that issues the benefit

HMRC said "where one member of a couple is subject to immigration control and the other one is not the couple should be treated as if neither of them are subject to immigration control. I can not advice if this will affect your wifes immigration status you will need to contact the Immigration Department who will advise on that."

SO I do not know? I really dont know what to do? Who should I get professional advice from? I mean I wrote to both places before making the claim for advice on the matter.

Quote Originally Posted by Terpe View Post
Here's what UKBA state :-



If you feel that any of the above puts you or your wife out of the scope then you must seek professional advice before claiming.
Everyone has different personal circumstances.
Your starting point should be DWP and UKBA to clarify yours.

The 'second adult element' applies if you're claiming as a member of a couple. You legally have to claim as a couple if you live with a partner. This includes same-sex partners as well as opposite-sex partners.

- Working Tax Credit is normally paid directly to a working claimant. In your case, this happens to be your wife, who also happens to be subject to immigration constraints.

- Normally, but depending on personal circumstances, a couple where one is subject to immigration
(and no claims for children) won’t normally get the couple element.
But you still need to make a joint claim. (This is a legal requirement)

From where I sit, it comes down to a question of legal precedents, but personally at the end of the day I would be uneasy at having my wife as the claimant receiving payment without sound legal advice.
If you were the main claimant (but still joint claim) and you were the one in receipt of payment there'd be no issues whatsoever.

Whenever claims are made for benefits the authorities must always be clearly made aware of the UKBA constraint of 'No Recourse to Public Funds' on any family member.