have a cl. who has a nepalese husband and child, the child is not cl.
cl. is british citizen.
husband and child are both nepalese with no british citizenship or recourse to public funds.
husband is employed.
cl. does not work.
live in rented accommodation.
what, if any benefits can they claim, ie :
working / child tax credit.
child benefit.
housing / council tax benefit.
our concern is that if they claim benefits this will jeopardise husbands / childs right to remain in uk after 2 years have lapsed.

as ever, all answers greatly appreciated ...

pete

Client has no restrictions on ability to claim anything so:

- she can claim child benefit for the child (the child's nationality doesn't matter as she is the claimant);
- she can claim child tax credit, but husband's income will come into the equation, and I can never remember but I think that she can't claim WTC as she is not the person working;
- she can claim HB/CTB as long as she doesn't get more than she would if she was a single person. In these benefits the rule is that you must not claim EXTRA benefit for a person from abroad.
Generally speaking though they get you coming and going, for example you can't claim as a lone parent becaue you aren't, or (I suspect) get the single occupier discount on council tax; but your person from abroad partner's income is aggregated with yours.

The only problem is if his and the child's visas were on an undertaking or similar from her that she could house them adequately and support them without recourse to public funds. You might want to look inot the immigration side of this.

Them's my thoughts anyway: anyone else?

Hi, I agree with Ariadne except I think that WTC is included in the claim - effectively as long as the client claims it is as if both of them were not subject to immigration control. A claim for HB/CTB should definitely not be made because the client cannot be treated as a single parent; therefore it would be recourse to public funds.