EEA national and reliance on family member

I have a client who is a Dutch national, has lived in the Netherlands, UK and, since 1985 Spain. His adult daughter is a UK national who lived in Spain but returned to the UK in 2015.  She has since claimed ESA and PIP. She has never worked in the UK.  Her father has been asked by social services to look after her children because of her current mental and physical disabilities.  However, he is not, at present, treated by them as an official foster carer. They are providing a care allowance but this is for the support of the children. The care of the children means that he is unable to work. The fact that he is not an official foster carer means that he cannot register as self-employed. I was hoping that he would have a right to benefit (Housing Benefit is most crucial) by virtue of being her dependent (family member of an EEA worker) but the fact that she has never worked since she returned to the UK seems to rule this out. What do people think?  Ruth

Just an update.  My client is now recognised as a Section 20 Kinship Carer and receives an allowance for the support of the child from the Local Authority.  This makes him self-employed for HMRC purposes so we are in the process of claiming Housing Benefit for him on the basis of his status as self-employed.

Great news Ruth - sorry you had a bit of a deafening silence there!

Thanks Daphne - won’t relax however until I get decision - fingers crossed!