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council tax support CTS stopping for EEA/EU citizens unless have settled status from April 2020 !!!!??
just been told council tax support is stopping for any EEA/EU nationals who don’t have settled status from April 2020!
has anyone else heard re this ?
is it true? has it slipped through the net?
is it just new claims or existing?
thanks
Not really sure where you are getting this from but this is not something which can lawfully be done.
policy in practice said it is
and see this
this is the only place i can find it mentioned online
Yes I’m afraid that I think you are getting this muddled.
The situation is that benefit entitlement is generally subject to having a “right to reside” in the UK. CTR is no different. Any right to reside which exists in UK or EU law will suffice unless it is specifically excluded.
UK law rights to reside are generally citizenship or limited or indefinite leave to remain. EU law rights to reside are things like worker status.
Pre-settled and settled status are both rights to reside so, on the face of it, bring with them an entitlement to access benefit. This initially created a slightly odd situation where somebody who had no right to reside in EU law and therefore no access to benefit would suddenly become entitled to benefit once they were granted pre-settled status. This significantly expanded the scope for benefit claims by economically inactive EEA nationals which was, at the very least, counter-intuitive.
The change you are referring to is to include “pre-settled status” as one of the categories of right to reside which are ignored for the purposes of benefit entitlement.
Therefore if somebody makes a claim for CTR and their only right to reside is on the basis that they have pre-settled status, but they are otherwise economically inactive and have no rights as a worker, permanent resident etc. then the claim will be refused.
But it is still possible to rely on the EU law rights until the end of the transitional period, so if claimants have EU law rights to reside (e.g. as workers) then they can still claim CTR and other benefits.
excellent - i will feed this back and ask for clarification - thanks for your help