British Citizen returning from South Africa ...

Cl is 61 year old man, British Citizen married to 48 year old South African national. Cl and wife came to UK in Mar 2014 and are staying temporarily with his son in a one bedroom mortgaged flat. Cl has never lived in UK before but intends to settle here with his wife. Cl’s wife is on a spousal visa with no recourse to public funds. Cl has never paid UK taxes or NI contributions.

Cl and wife are looking for work. Cl has applied for an NI number. Cl’s wife has no income savings or assets, Cl sold a property in SA before coming to UK accruing c900000 Rand (equates to c£48,600). He paid down some of his son’s mortgage with this (amount not specified).
Cl is not entitled to a SA pension but does have an occupational pension which allows him to drawdown a self determined amount annually with prescribed max. and min. limits.. Cl thinks his last annual drawdown was c120K rand (equates to c£6486), date and actual amount to be confirmed by Cl. No ther income or assets.

Cl wants to know if he is entitled to any state benefits of other assistance.

Hello all, and some of you may know me from when i was the welfare benefits caseworker at Maidstone CAB but I am now the Client Services Manager at Bromley CAB and due to not doing welfare benefits advice for just over a year now my noggin’s a bit rusty !

Anyway, having looked at the above cl. circumstances i am a bit stumped as to how he may be able to claim means tested benefits while he has a wife who has no recourse to public funds ?

Can anybody tell me what are the implications are if he claims benefits in this situation and any thoughts, as ever, are greatly appreciated :)

Well- any means tested benefits he has any chance of qualifying for (JSA, HB if they find rented accommodation, etc) are public funds so are potentially going to scupper his wife’s chances of obtaining ILR leaving aside the issue of the capital (whatever remains of it) so it isn’t looking very promising. There shouldn’t be a HRT issue in view of the length of time they have now lived in the UK so at least there is some good news.

Thanks for that but if I remember correctly, or incorrectly as the case may be, isn’t there a silly ruling that seems to make no sense whatsoever where they say (whoever they may be ?) that a person can claim benefits as a couple in this instance but only if they would not be better off bu doing so ?

Sorry if that’s making no sense whatsoever but as usual, any thoughts etc, thank you ...

I usually advise clients in that position to run it by their immigration solicitor if they have one, or another immigration specialist for an opinion as to what the level of risk is. I will say that I’ve had plenty of clients over the years claiming HB, etc, with no eventual problem with the spouse being granted ILR but I have no idea whether that will remain the case or not.

There’s still the issue of the capital of course, which may blow your client out of JSA/HB anyway regardless of any other consideration.

In terms of Housing Benefit where one partner is subject to no recourse to public funds, a previous thread which I started may be useful - http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/3966/ 

You might want to look at WBH 2014-15 p.1501 et seq, especially p.1507, for more details about how someone who is subject to no recourse to public funds is affected in terms of which benefits they can or cannot claim, and in particular, how the rules for means-tested benefits work with couples. Basic position is that a partner is included in the joint claim for means-tested benefits but these are only paid at the single person’s rate, unless one of the exceptions noted applies.

And of course, if in doubt, get immigration advice before making any benefit claims if you think they will be affected, to avoid any subsequent problems.

Thank you all, most useful ...

HB is the tricky one - it is possible for the partner’s very existence to increase the amount payable especially when, as may be the case here, there is income in excess of the applicable amount for a single person.

All the other means-tested benefits are nicely “joined up” with the immigration rules - it is impossible to claim something that would get you into trouble with the Home Office because you don’t qualify for it under the benefit rules.  The working age DWP benefits use the mechanism of a modified applicable amount while Pension Credit completely ignores the member of the couple without recourse to public funds.  But HB uses a regular couple’s calculation so that’s where the risk lies.