michali

spouse of scouse

I had to Google to find out what a Freedom Pass was - trust you southerners to have a fancy name for a bus pass

michali

It is a strange name! Suggests emancipation from slavery!

spouse of scouse

Emancipation from having to walk, maybe

feelbritish

Regarding winter fuel allowance again. My husband is the citizen and drawing his state pension. We returned last October and has not received winter allowance but told me this morning he has written to them to see if he qualifies. I just want to get this straight before we have to do FLR. Can he claim his fuel allowance in his name? As I live in the house and not at pension age yet and cannot have recourse to public funds should they only pay him half or can he get the full amount in his name?

mikelincs

He will get the full amount in his name, the payment is made per household and is £200, if there is on;y one person of pensionable age they will receive the full amount, if both are the money will be divided between the two, if there are three or more the amount is still the same just divided into smaller amounts. My wife was very put out when I became qualified to receive it as her payment halved.

spouse of scouse

I'm still on the first stage of my spouse visa. My Brit husband has a part state pension, the winter fuel allowance was just automatically put into his account after we returned to the UK. Didn't think anything of it, and am not the slightest bit worried.

michali

Well, the end of our saga regarding the winter fuel payments. We repaid the allowances given us. I think it is only automatically sent to pensioners and that is why my husband was sent his. We hope they do not send him any more!

The good news is that he was granted his FLR(M) today at Croydon. He was up front about what had transpired with the winter fuel payments and submitted supporting documents.

We are so relieved!! It has been so stressful! Thanks BritInParis!

formula

The government guidance on taking public funds is quite clear, that if it is an administrative error then this is not a reason to deny a visa. That doesn't mean they get to keep the money though

He paid it back, he didn't conceal this, = he gets the visa.

Congratulations.

michali

Thanks formula!

BritInParis

Good stuff. Nice to know that honesty pays once in a while!

Perth

Michali, how can one avoid this happening? I won't be eligible, but my husband, who will be the one with the visa, will be 70 when we arrive. Hate too have to go through what you went through.

Huge congrats for FLR

michali

Thanks Perth. Has your husband ever received a UK Pension? If he does, then he might well be sent the WFA automatically. If he is pensioner then he should inform DWP of his new address when you arrive and let them know he is under immigration control. If he is not a pensioner, he will probably not be sent the WFA automatically. It has been a terrible two months for us, trying to get this sorted out! I am glad your plans to relocate are going ahead. Exciting times for you! Whatever we can do on the forum to help, just let us know.

feelbritish

Good news Michali, now you can relax again for a couple of years! I am dreading going for FLR as OH does not want to pay for same day service and wants me to post it. We also intend moving house so that will be more form filling.

michali

Hopefully, your OH will change his mind about the same day service. We also were going to post ours in light of our complication, but our solicitor ( who we engaged to help us deal with our rather unique problem) almost insisted we attend the PSC and we are so glad he did! Applications by post take at least a couple of months. The staff at the PSC's are really helpful and pleasant and the system is very efficient.

Moving home should not be a problem as long as you can show official correspondence to both addresses and, of course, deeds etc. Believe it or not, we are going to look at the application for ILR in the next few days just so we know what is what. We also need to confirm that my husband will not receive any future WFA. After that we will relax for awhile!