billy sollocks

hi all , a friend of mine (lady)settled over here (hubby +3 kids) after their marriage went through a sticky patch to sort out their lives, they bought a property after selling house in uk and hubby was to continue job in uk with a chance to move to spanish factory later on. all the time while out here was claiming "family allowences" for kids.well to cut it short it didnt work out he went back to uk filed for divorce etc etc.she was given custody off kids and hubby to pay maintenence so far so good. then came the bombshell? she got a letter from dhss/hmrc/dwp whoever deals with child benefit to tell her that she cant claim while living out here has been overpaid while living here and has to pay back the money owed but her ex husband who lives in uk can claim it for him even though he hasn`t got the kids , he comes over 4/5 times a year to see them and they go to him for 2/3 weeks in august so how come you can bring a pension over here but you cant bring child benefit( it stinks in my opinion) so my question to you ladies out there has it happened to you or what advice can you give her any solutions will be appreciated thanks in advance

poshnbucks

Can not help re F/A but I love you Profile name appeals to my warped sense of humour.


Below was another BS trying to get my old jigger banned as I own one of those. Good job I managed to grease a few palms and get the thing kicked into touch.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/reject?id=2605803

spain

a lot of people I know of continue to claim child benefit while living in Spain...they just keep a UK address and bank acc for the payments

apparently there is a similar system in Spain you can claim under if you have kids but I dont know of anyone who has/does so dont know how it works

does seem a bit ridiculous that the hubby can claim in Uk for kids he dont have custody of but watching my bro and a few friends going through the legal divorce system there are a lot of things that just dont seem to make sense !!!

poshnbucks

That is a bit like claiming for second homes allowance I bet they are all Members of Parliament.


BILLY.

This topic was debated in March please see the thread and glean the help and forms required from there.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=598589&page=2

spain

snikpoh

... as I understand it, you can't claim unless you have been 'paying into the system'. That is, you have either had a job here or paid the contributions voluntarily.

jeanc

A few months ago on tv ( UK ) there was a polish guy living & working in London claiming child benefit for 8 kids back in Poland!!!! and he got it because he had an nhs number and was paying tax ect. Bet the payments in child health care was more than he was paying in!!

Fred James

Oh God! Shock horror!

You mean that you can't get all these benefits without having contributed something?

What a ridiculous idea!

I think I shall have to go back to the UK on the next assisted flight courtesy of the UK Embassy's repatriation procedure (paid for by huge contributions from expats wanting passports at a mere €144 because they can't get cheap ID cards like the Spanish).

Does anyone know where I can download a form where I can claim a free 5 bedroom house in Surrey - or is that only for MPs?

CLR

The company I work for employ a lot of Eastern europeans. When they joined the EEC there was a huge wave of them. The majority are hard workers and indeed if we did not have them we would struggle for staff.
We have employed Doctors, Vets, University students all with families, most have the claimed the Child benefit because once they put a stamp on they can. The majority send their money home.

Most have the sytem sussed. Mother and Father come over with pregnant daughter (just). Daughter works long enough to claim full Statutory maternity pay. When baby is due both parents went of on statutory sick pay.

We have recently had two claims of compensation:-

One we paid at the request of the Citizens advice bureau (anything for a quiet life).

The other a polystyrene fish box fell on a woman with family witnesses.

One worker this week has just been sacked for threatening to murder a work colleague. (too much wodka I think)!!!!!!

Another person left last week - they had brought a blind son from Latvia and now the council we re homing them, they now have access to disability payments.

And so it goes on - the UK is a definite soft touch and does not seem to be able to say no. (think I had better get off my soap box now)

big wheels

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/campaigns/bene...es/english.asp

Quote" Remember – if you are in receipt of benefits, it’s an offence not to tell us if your circumstances change, for example:

you are going or living abroad
If you don’t tell us it could mean prosecution, imprisonment and even the confiscation of your home and possessions"quote

Why not give them a call?

scampicat

Rules is rules.

Some things are exportable, others not.

It's usually the things you have paid into that are exportable such as State Pension or Health-related Benefits.

Child Benefit is not one of them I'm afraid.

So in answer to your question there isn't anything she can do other than move back to the Uk and claim Benefits there.

mikelincs

Problem is she is being asked to pay back the amount she was claiming while living here, it's usually classed as benefit fraud, and the authorities are hot on that at the moment, which is why they have set up a hot line just for Spain. She was in the wrong claiming, should have put the claim in her husbands name as he was in the UK, suggest she just claims she thought it was OK as her husband was still in Spain, and asks for permission to pay it back at 50p a month

scampicat

I'm sure they will allow her to pay by instalments but I would suggest a larger amount than 50p a month because that is just extracting the urine. She was committing fraud when all is said and done.

Depending on her circumstances £20 or more a month might be more appropriate.

correveidile

You pay for a pension while you are working and claim it once you retire, it's not a social benefit. As for the poor thing having to pay it back, well if she wasn't milking the system in the first place she wouldn't have to return it now.

searcher48

says here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/st...ot-in-UK.htm#4 That if overseas ex-partner and child rely on uk worker for support you can qualify for "child tax credit"
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/...ing-abroad.htm Also child benefit if he was still paying NICs while in spain.