married couple with 3 children 4th on way wife is British husband is from Pakistan overstayed his visiting visa has applied in this country to stay(indefinite leave to remain?) Home Office can't give time scale for when decision will be made he has been told he cannot work until outcome of decision. wife had applied for wtc/ctc as single parent - husband was working for cash in hand TCs o/p for £24000 as couldn't prove he was working or not. wife has been awarded hb/ctb as single parent. Husband no nino. Could they re-apply for TCs as joint couple? Paying back overpayment at £50 a month for TCs currently.

I believe that she can claim as she is a British citizen and they will be entitled to the second adult element. Being as the couples element is the same as the lone parent element this does not cause them to receive any additional public funds.

If you have access to the current CPAG h/Bk see page 1386. This refers to the Tax Credits (Immigration) Regs 3(2).

Thanks very much Chris

There will be a TC overpayment because there was a single claim when in reality they were a couple, so as Chris says, they need to claim as a couple asap to minimise the overpayment. May be possible to use the new Notional Entitlement provisions of the compliance manual to mitigate the overpayment, but only if there is a compliance investigation (watch out for this). However, even if the Notional entitlement rules apply, the husbands wages might make this pointless.

May be grounds to write off the overpayment through hardship provisions (the recent ombudsmans report confirms the Revenue are willing to consider such applications). However, probably no good pleading ordinary bog standard hardship - you need to show exceptional circumstances etc.

Finally, watch out for a HB overpayment - the HB rules do not allow for single adult claims in mixed household cases.

Steve