Wife of UK citizen who is a worker, seperated from him and wants to claim HB/CTB. This should be very easy but I can't seem to find it written down. She's been in U.K. six years.

Does he count as EU citizen, in which case I think she can she count as partner of EU citizen lawfully working in UK. Or can she get it as she's been here more than five years like a sponsored person would?

Does it matter she's left matrimonial home for H.B. (I don't think it's to do with Domestic violence) will they say she can't get HB as it's a second home.

Sorry it's a bit garbled

Not clear from your post if the wife is an EU national or not?


1. If she is an EU national then you have an issue with the "right to reside" test.

As far as that goes, I think you will struggle to rely on EU worker argument given that the husband has not travelled within the EU (generally UK citizens in UK cannot rely on provisions designed to assist EU migrant workers because..... they aren't EU migrant workers).

HOWEVER.....domestic law has now sorted this out to some extent (so that Reg 9 of the new Immigration (EEA) Regs 2006 treats a UK worker as if they were an EEA worker (ie had a right to install their wife) provided they had been living together in another European country at some point.

That still however does require there to have been some travel within the community.


2. If she is not an EU national then I would guess she has some other form of leave to remain. What is this? After being here for 6 years it would be unlikely for someone not (provided they made the correct applications etc) to have acquired Indefinite Leave to Remain on the basis of marriage etc.

Thanks for that and sorry my message was so garbled.

Unfortunately I'm getting this third hand from another adviser but what I can say is that

1. She is not an EU citizen (she's Jamaican).
2. We don't know about her current status except to say that she has applied for Discretionary Leave but it hasn't yet been awarded. It does seem odd as she's been here six year but I suppose she only started to be concerned about her own status when they seperated.
3. They never lived together in any other EU country
4. she is already in receipt of Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit as they have a child.