have cl. who is uk citizen and last lived in uk 01/02.
since then has lived in norway with norwegian husband, and they have 2 children who have norwegian passports.
husband has not worked in uk at any time.
they have business and jointly mortgaged property in norway but the business is failing.
cl. wants to return to uk with 2 children, her husband remain in norway taking care of matters, ie : selling business / home, before joining cl. / children in uk.

can she claim benefits in this scenario ? ? ?

i've done a bit of reading on this and i think cl. could come to uk, husband remain in norway etc, and she could claim i.s, h.b / c.t.b so long as their absence from each other is not likely to exceed 52 weeks. however cl. would have to satisfy the habitual residence test (hrt) and have been in uk for an appreciable period of time before passing this.
a concern i have here (if i am moving in the right direction) is that the hrt may be difficult to pass because of cl. owning home in norway and her husband being there. this is hurting my head. and i hope i am moving in the right direction)

my summary is therefore that :
cl. could claim i.s.
cl. could claim h.b / c.t.b if she / husband were taking steps to sell property in norway, capital would be disregarded for 26 wks + etc.
would qualify for c.b / c.t.c.
all dependant upon hrt being satisfied of course.

any thoughts / feedback on this would make me

thanx, and goodnight.

pete x

don't you run into trouble with her and husband remaining members of the same household with a temporary separation? This means that they go on havign assets aggregated, his income is classed as hers, there's problems if he's working at leat 24 hrs/week, and she doesn't count as a lone parent anyway because the separation is only temporary?

And all that's before you even get as far as worrying about the HRT - god it gets proper murky at times.

so what you're saying ariadne2 is ... "my cl. is stuffed basically" ?

i see where you're coming from, and yes it can be bloody confusing / murky at times, but also quite interesting and entertaining too

pete

hmmmmmmmm ... just had another thought on this one ?

so if we don't go for separation with a temporary absence, what do we go for ? cl. states she has separated permanently ... not that i would ever tell a client to lie ... and if this was the scenario then you would just be looking at :

1 disregarded capital for 26 weeks + in norway.

2 habitual residence test.

again, any suggestions re : this matter greatly accepted.

pete