Please help.

I have a client from the Phillipines working in UK as a nurse since July 2002. She entered the country as part of the NHS policy to employ overseas medical professionals due to shortages in the nursing profession.

When she entered the country she had appointments with several different agencies and departments, which would be confusing for most lay people, and especially confusing for a foreign national with no knoweldge of our benefits and tax credits systems.

As a consequence, she was provided with a TC600 and was subsequently awarded Child Tax Credit. It will obviously come as no surprise to anybody that four years later she has been presented with overpayment demands from the TCO for a princely sum in excess of £10,000.

As far as I am aware, in 2002 WTC and CTC were not deemed to be 'public funds', so although she may not have had any entitlement, she may not have been in breach of the terms of her work permit. However, I believe that from 15th March 2005 tax credits were entered onto the list of public funds, which may mean that technically my client has committed a criminal offence and could be in breach of her visa.

Obviously, my main concern is that she is not subject to any proceedings by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Secondly, why on earth did the TCO award tax credits when there was no entitlement by virtue of nationality ? (That was a rhetorical question, as most questions relating to the actions of the TCO are usually prefixed with the word "why".)

Could anybody advise on best course of action ? My client is devastated, especially as she was hoping to apply for naturalisation next year. My instict is to refer to a specialist solicitor, although I do not wish to make a mountain out of what may be a molehill.

I'm not clear on one point. You say she came here in July 2002. WTC/CTC did not start until Apl. 2003. Was she on WFTC and then migrated to TCs? I don't know whether WFTC was on the public funds list but it seems likely it was, so - if she did have that - there could have been an offence at the outset. If it is possible (using Data Protection legislation?) to get all the paperwork about her claims, and information from whoever advised her to claim, it might help to ascertain how the problem came about. This could be valuable if IND do start to cause problems. (Incidentally, how do they find out about people claiming when they should not?)

Your second para. seems to me to contain the basis for a case to TCO that the overpayment should not be recovered - i.e. she was advised (by a public body?) to claim and had no way of knowing that she should not do so. This does depend, of course, on the precise facts of what occurred.

I'm not at all sure on the best course of action but one possibility is to get hold of all the paperwork and set out a detailed record of all the facts so it can be referred to a solicitor if IND do get involved. But there are a lot of imponderables (e.g. what would IND do - would they simply revoke her work permit without any enquiry to her or any warning) so advice from an immigration specialist could be valuable.

See the previous thread on this (sure Shawn will help out if this link does not work!)

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1396&mesg_id=1396&listing_type=search

Fiona,

Thanks very much for your reply. It's been a great help and is much appreciated by my client.

Regards

Chris