Wed 30-Apr-08 01:33 AM by southwestlaw2

just hoping for a 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th opinion really if anyone can offer one.

husband has UK passport and is at home caring for children. Wife is in UK on visa with no recourse to public funds, she is working full time.

WTC is included in list of 'public funds'. WTC can be claimed if you (or your partner) are working sufficient hours.

Do the mixed status household rules apply so that he CAN claim WTC as a joint claim because his wife is working; or

do the 'no additional recourse rules' apply such that there can be no claim because their only entitlement is because she is the worker?


...and please (once you've proffered a view) do feel free to make up alternative possible ifs and buts scenarios they are many and plentiful!!

many thanks

C

no idea, but dno't tell me this was keeping you up at night?!!!! 0130AM which even given that board time is wrong, is when all good welfs should be asleep...

Regulation 3(2), Tax Credit Immigration Regulations says:

'(2) Where one member of a couple is a person subject to immigration control, and the other member is not or is within any of Cases 1 to 5 or regulation 5 -

(a) the calculation of the amount of tax credit under the Act, the Child Tax Credit Regulations and the Working Tax Credit Regulations (INCLUDING any second adult element or other ELEMENT IN RESPCECT OF, OF , OR DETERMINED BY RERENCE TO, THAT PERSON),

(b) the method of making (or proceeding with) a joint claim by the couple, and

(c) the method of payment of the tax credit,

shall, subject to paragraph (3), be determined in the same way as if that person were not subject to such control.'

Sub-paragraph (3), which limits entitlement in cases 1-5 and under regulation 5 (where the 'elibible' claimant is a person subject to immigration control with limited entitlement to TCs) to that claimant's entitlement, is not relevant to your client.

So the answer is yes your clients can claim and won't be treated as having recourse to public funds because para 6B of the immigration rules says:

'6B. A person shall not be regarded as having recourse to public funds if he is a person who is not excluded from specified benefits under section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 by virtue of regulations made under sub-sections (3) and (4) of that section or section 42 of the Tax Credits Act 2002.'

(obviously the 24 hour society hasn't spread from Bristol to Stockton on Tees yet!)

forgot to say Tax Credit Immigration Regs are made under section 42 of the Tax Credits Act....

come now , who needs sleep when there are tax credits conundrums to be enjoyed?! pah, surely sleep is for conveyancers and corporate types, not us hugely dedicated world changing wb folk and Bristol is a really happening place you know!


many thanks Paul - you're a star! that's what i had hoped someone would say, it seems that on odd occasions i doubt myself too much.


cheers
Caroline

"(obviously the 24 hour society hasn't spread from Bristol to Stockton on Tees yet!) "

no, not yet .... although perhaps the next time i have a sleepless night (it doesn't happen often...)

I agree with what's been said but you did ask for alternative senarios.

One such senario is where the couple may wish to rely on the incapacity route to claim Working Tax Credit, this isn't really an issue about PSIC but suppose your couple had no children, the partner who stays at home does so because of incapacity while the PSIC works. In that case I don't think they could get WTC.

The other issue that could complicate things is that there are people who are exempt from being subject from immigration control for either CTC or WTC, but not for the other tax credit (sorry if that doesn't make sense) I recall there have been other discussion threads about this in the past and I also recall being very confused.