Housing Benefit and NINO requirement

I have a claimant in temporary accommodation. He is Australian, always worked but paid tax outside of the UK so never applied for a NINO. Partner is Romanian and had a NINO at time of claim. Covid related job loss etc. led to loss of privately rented accommodation and they were placed by LA in hostel and then temp acc.

Did not claim UC but made a claim for HB. The LA have consistently refused claims in his name due to him not having a NINO but as far as I can tell he provided sufficient information to show that he had requested one. Does S1 (1A) and (1B) SSAA 1992 apply here?

thanks

J

He is a 3rd country national - so he’ll need leave to enter/remain in the UK and that may include him not having recourse to public funds.
Do you know what his Home office status is? Does he have a visa in his own right or is he in the UK as a family men[mber of someone else?

Are the couple married? Does the Romanaian ( EEA) national have a right to reside?
if they are married, he is her family member , although I think he still needs to apply for EUSS as her family member
if they are not married, that wont work.

In any case, if he has recourse to public funds, The local authority should send a DC1 to request a NINO for himn - HB can be refused depending on the reply ( theat the customer hasnt engaged with the process to get one)  if he has already applied, he needs to provide proof of that to them.

Thank you @Prisca. As far as I can tell there were no residency or recourse issues so I’m going to run with the NINO argument to see if I get anywhere.