Nigerian national - rights to benefit after separation ?

This subject area is a rarity for me: any help will be appreciated.

Client is a Nigerian national whose husband is British, as are her children.

She and husband have separated following dv. He appears to be obeying an injunction to stay away.

The only benefit claimed was CB, in his name. .

They were in Portugal and came to UK recently - but it looks as if he has not been working, just living off savings.

She was admitted to UK for 6 months under The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 – presumably as a ‘family member of a UK National’.

I’m just getting started - what questions do I need to ask?

If I understand your post correctly you may be able to go down this route Andrew https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-benefits-for-visa-holder-domestic-violence
but there are immigration status implications involved so probably in conjunction with an immigration adviser.

The EEA Regs exclude British Citizens from the definition of EEA national (EEA Reg - Reg 2). The EEA regs primarily concern those EU nationals from other member states who move to the UK. There is an exception to treat the family member of a UK national as the family member of an EU national if the British citizen worked or was self-employed in another member state (Reg 9). If they have accepted him as working or being self-employed in Portugal they may have given her family member of an EU national status.

For family members of British citizens (as above) since Jan 2014 there has been an additional requirement. The “centre of the British person’s life” must have transferred to the EU state in which they were a worker or self-employed. Factors in determining this include length of residence, location of principle residence and degree of integration. That could give them trouble and needs investigating.

there is case law on whether the returning British Citizen must exercise Treaty Rights in the UK in order for his family member to continue to have family member status. It’s probably developed since my CPAG training notes which are dated May 2015.

If she is looking after the children and she is the primary carer of (I assume) British children then she has a derivative right to reside but (again according to my notes) would be excluded from all benefits requiring a right to reside including CHB and CTC

so definitely an immig adviser and detailed scrutiny of what they did in Portugal, when they came back, where the children were born etc