Pulaski

Sorry I wasn't clearer, I meant arrive figuratively at this point in time, not arrive physically in the UK.

ElizabethK

If this is a real post and not something to get people fighting each other regarding benefits etc. then I don't understand why you went back to UK at all (pregnant or not) If, as you say you have no-one there, where did you find accommodation upon arriving back in UK if you have no job or family?

I don't think this is a legitimate post, none of it makes sense and as Judge Judy often says, "If it doesn't make sense, it's not true" ( I looooove Judge Judy )

Snap Shot

Yes and yes.

Giantaxe

I was responding to the post by englishguygoinghome which referred to his expectations regarding his child.

englishguygoinghome

I understand the principle (and in the case of pensions strongly disagree with it but that's another matter). My view, however, is that if I am expected to pay for others now I expect others to pay for me and my loved one's later. Otherwise I would feel cheated.

Not quite - Car Insurance is a risk based insurance. At least some benefits could be considered to be more accurately modelled by capital based insurance schemes. Particularly once restrictions are put in place based upon contributions, presence in country etc.

Then I want to stop paying and I'll look after my own. I think it is ridiculous to say that my benefits contributions will cover someone whose only link to the country is that they have been here for 6 months and not someone who grew up here for 18 years, whose family have been here possibly for generations and who left temporarily but now needs to come back.

Why should we say to our citizens - "if you leave you forfeit the safety net immediately, even though you've been paying for it for years and never used it to date"

Actually - I spotted in the regulations that people who were previously habitually resident should be able to become habitually resident again immediately on return.
Now that - finally - makes sense but seems to be ignored by / unknown to those applying the test to ex-expats

Pistolpete2

I know it's just Labour trying to find a chink in the armour of the Tories prior to the next election but this is from Labour recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22056212

Sally Redux

Eeverybody thinks they are the only one shoring up the system, but I think they'd get a real shock if they had to pay the full cost of healthcare and services used.

BristolUK

Just to pick up on this point (as someone who made HRT Benefit decisions for nearly 10 years) note that it refers to special cases - that is cases outside the norm of the Brit returning.

I was glad you reproduced it, though, because of the rest of it.

I have constantly argued on this forum when people have been denied benefits for HRT reasons that no "qualifying period" need be applied and this part proves it.

Of course, it also says the only part that may be bypassed is the period of actual residence after return. This does mean that all the other facts should still be considered.

And in a case like that of the OP - true or not, such cases do exist - it would be very easy for DWP to say She is married with a husband in Jordan from whom she is not estranged. He remains in Jordan, where the marital home is as well as his employment. He's the father of her expected child

Home, income, family....all in Jordan. In the absence of anything to the contrary, that's where her centre of interest is. "Centre of interest" is a major consideration in HRT matters.

Just thought I'd throw that in as genuine cases do surface on this forum.

Pollyana

Thanks for that - as yet there is nothing to say that the OP is anything other than genuine. We have had a few similar cases in the past, so c'mon people lets give her the benefit of the doubt and be a bit supportive

englishguygoinghome

Thanks, at last a reasoned argument. So, effectively, advice to "wait 6 months" and then you will pass the test is probably incorrect but prgamatic (I guess many officers incorrectly turn these cases down based on period of current residence and pass them later )

The OPs only choice to remain in the UK and get assistance would be to bring her husband over here so there was an extra mouth to feed instead of someone earning something in Jordan and maybe sending some financial support to her (ah, but she can't under the new visa rules). Or formally separate from her husband, which would prove to the DWP agent that she had broken ties elsewhere and was intending to remain with the as her center of interest while pointing out the above special case exception.

Hmm - not sure I approve of the way our system is set up. It seems to allow plenty of cases I believe are wrong and deny many I believe are just.

mikelincs

Her problem seems to be that she has returned to the UK, leaving her husband and home in Jordan, this would be seen by the vast majority of people as Health tourism, in other words she has returned to have the baby and is not intending to make her home here, this is where the qualifying period will kick in, the UK government is certainly being very proactive in cases where health tourism is suspected, and IMO, rightly so. To get benefits etc she will have to prove to the authorities that she isn't a health tourist, and that means having substantial ties to the UK, not to Jordan.

dunroving

And it will ever be that way - there will always be cases we see as being undeserving, or deserving but not getting, no matter what system is in place. If we become more lenient, we give more to those who deserve, but also to those who probably don't deserve (or deserve less). If we tighten things up, the opposite happens.

As a long-time consistent contributor and minimal withdraw-er, I find there is too great a sense of entitlement in the UK these days. Even common sense ideas like getting long-term unemployed to do something to earn their benefits is flamed by bleeding heart liberals or labelled as some sort of political tool or breach of their human rights.

One of the injustices that really sticks in my craw is that if I financially conservative (save instead of splash out) at some point I'll be made to pay for it via some means-tested reduction in some form of state entitlement.

Giantaxe

I agree that it has that appearance. Otoh, the new visa regulations for non-EU spouses put the OP in a pretty impossible position if she genuinely does want to live in the UK with her family: she's 7 months pregnant making it unlikely she will be employed let alone get a job paying enough to meet the income requirements, and any income that her husband earns cannot be taken into account. It's a real catch 22.

BristolUK

'fraid so. Unless challenged. Too many just respond with "but I'm British" and get nowhere.

The odd thing is that when people look to move to whatever country they head for, these forums show loads of research and preparation.

Obviously there's much less of a need for researching the UK when returning - depending on how long one was away - but there is still a fair bit of preparation involved and it's quite remarkable how little of that is presented at the time of a benefits application.

There are exceptions of course but that preparation for return is going to make a big difference in resuming residency immediately upon return being accepted.

ldollard

I agree, and she probably didn't post back because some of you guys have been so awful.