Child Benefit Right To Reside

My cli is Bulgarian, cams to UK with partner and child, worked a as Delivery driver, sub contracted to her partner, he worked for Hermes , she was paid by husband as his ‘assistant’  self employed. couple split up, client claimed CB, refused as no right to reside
I am arguing she was self employed, she filled in tax returns etc, when she had to stop work when partner left her she became a student to help her improve her English , she also worked as an intern to help get a job. HMRC say she has no right to reside because even though she was a student she had no sickness insurance and was not financially independent of public resources. !!!!!

[ her internship has now become paid work and a fresh CB claim has been made from that time ]
any views please on HMRC approach, I have thrown in the Big Issue case in support of my client in respect of genuine and effective self employment as HNRC have suggested she was not, but the student issue is worrying me most

It sounds like you and HMRC are speaking at cross-purposes.

Your argument is that your client has a right to reside through self-employment (or perhaps work through the internship). That is one way of developing an EU law right to reside.

HMRC are saying that your client does not have a right to reside as a student for the reasons that they give. That’s as may be, but you were not arguing that this was the basis of her residence rights. Being a student may, under certain conditions, provide a different basis for an EU law right to reside but it wasn’t the argument you were making.

I wouldn’t be too troubled by what they have said. I think the issue is more going to be about whether your client’s economic activity was really ‘genuine and effective’.

Clearly there is going to be some significance as to when the claims and decisions were made relative to your client’s changing circumstances.

Thanks Elliot my student point came about because the client stopped working as self employed when her partner left her as she has a 3 year old child so could not work, she at that time became a student and started the internship. her studies were intended to give her a better chance of getting a suitable job she could do with having a child, which she has now due to the internship becoming paid work, but for a while she was not in paid work , just a student , she has claimed universal credit throughout since stopping being self employed,

She claimed CTR and the council asked why she is not getting CB, she unfortunately told the council why and they then told her she should not be getting UC either, bit that disaster will have to wait for another day, UC have taken no action so far and now she is in paid work we are hoping they don’t

Its the CB appeal that i am wrestling with at present

What was your client doing at the point in time which she claimed ChB through to when the decision was actually made on the claim?

self employed from 03 02 20 to 07 09 20 claimed ChB on 09 09 20, looks like she claimed just as her partner left her and she stooped work and became student and claimed UC and started doin g the internship
she arrived in the UK on 02 02 20   HMRC issued a decision on the ChB claim, refusing it on 13 01 21 and looks like she was on UC and a student etc from date of claim to date of refusal
she seems to have made a fresh claim around jan 2021 which was also refused.

We are assuming she has pre-settled status, right? Just checking!

Following a very helpful series of cases and amendments to the I(EEA) Regs 2016, it looks to me as if your client would have retained the status of a self-employed person while undertaking vocational training.  This is now enshrined in Reg 6(4)(d) and (e).  The things that will need substantiating are whether the original work was effective and genuine as Elliot says, and whether the end of that work was voluntary or not depending on the nature of the training.

yes she has pre settled status, she had to give up the work to look after her child, i think I can argue it was effective work, !!!!!