Article 11 European Directive on Human Trafficking and application for Child Benefit

Wondering if anyone can shed any light on this.

We are assisting a client to apply for a backdate of her Child Benefit claim.

This client was the victim of trafficking.

She was rescued in September and made an application for CB. This was refused on the grounds that she was not a job seeker - fair enough.

Once she was given the relevant documentation she was able to claim JSA and CB.

However, we are looking to argue that she should have been awarded entitlement to CB under Article 11 European Directive on Human Trafficking:

“Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that a person is provided with assistance and support as soon as the competent authorities have a reasonable-grounds indication for believing that the person might have been subjected to any of the offences referred to in Articles 2 and 3”

Does anyone know of any case law etc that mentions this?

Thanks

i’ve never seen any UK social security case law about this - there may well be some ECJ caselaw though.

i think issue might be what kind of support is envisaged - i could imagine a court saying that if she were given accommodation and subsistence under the Children Act for example whilst waiting for documentation that would suffice.

anyone else have a view?

I think S17 of the Children’s Act might be of use

see : http://www.publiclawproject.org.uk/data/resources/121/PLP_2013_s17_guide.pdf

Is she a non-EEA national and was she granted humanitarian protection by the Home Office?  If she was, was this protection granted before or after her claim for CB?  For the purpose of the Directive did the reflective period begin before or after her claim for CB?