Spousal Visa - Can Tax Credits count as an income?

Hi All,

I am a failed asylum seeker currently in process of leaving the UK to apply for a re-entry clearance. My wife is a British citizen and we have a 3 years old son. My wife works full time and at the moment we are in receipt of tax credit.

We will not be able to meet the maintenance criteria without taking into account tax credits. I read on UKVisas that there is no objection in claiming tax credits as long as my wife claims on her own right (of course it will be assessed jointly).

Can a tax credit therefore be presented as an income?

I am stuck on this particular part of my evidence and any suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you.

I think it is worth standing back from this for a moment and asking ourselves the question ..... what is the financial test? The test is needing to show that you, the applicant, will not need to claim certain Public Funds.

Against that background the family income clearly includes Tax Credits, and no doubt Child Benefit as well. That is fine. Your wife is British and totally able to claim those amounts. And even when you get to the UK with your visa, and the Tax Credits claim is put into joint names, in view of the way para 6B of the Immigration Rules is worded, that will not count as you claiming Public Funds anyway.

So in summary, yes the Public Funds being claimed by your wife and part of the family income, and yes can be included in showing that you will not need to claim Public Funds, as defined.

Thanks John for your prompt reply.

As long as my wife continues to do what she is doing now, I believe the worst case scenario is being in exactly the same situation we are now. There are no additional public funds that are being claimed because I am here. So I tried to work out our current income against income support. I don’t know if there is anyone in this forum who has seen/experienced similar cases but let me know if this has any appeal when it comes to maintenance.

Weekly Income Support Total = £264.89 (this includes income support (couple), child benefit, child tax credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit)

Our Weekly Actual Income = £285.57 (this includes, wife's salary, child benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit)

Looks marginal but your feedback is again very much appreciated.

Thank you

Hi, i have just had my hearing and i am in receipt of child/working tax credits. I did a spreadsheet of my income and i included the tax credits in this,i gave in my wage slips and p60s then i gave the inland revenue letters showing the amount of credits i receive which also shows your income on it and how your tax credits is worked out.I had no problem.

Sorry can i add,if you can get a genuine offer of employment and add this to your bundle it will make your case even stronger.

lesley15,

You said you have just had a hearing, so i am assuming you succeeded at the appeal stage. If that is the case, were your application refused the first time around because of maintenance?

Bye the way the job offer thing, yeah i have been working on it but it is a long shot.

Yes we were refused on maintenance but only because i was wrongly advised by two solicitors,they told me it was a public fund and should not be written down so i thought they knew best (hadn't heard of this site or John at that stage!!!!) so my income looked like i wouldn't be able to support hubby. We were told the ECO couldn't verify my income so refused us. When it came to my hearing i included everything and it was not questioned.So annoying as it wasted so much time for us.I did also do a out going spreadsheet which i wrote down all my living expenses and showed i had money left at the end of the month.
Try on the work front,my hubby had job offer and the employer came to the hearing with me ,he was only asked to show accounts to prove he could afford to employ him.

Did your husband have the job offer at the time of the application?

Danbrix wrote:Our Weekly Actual Income = £285.57 (this includes, wife's salary, child benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit)

Two questions :-

1. It is not clear if housing cost needs to come out of that £285.57. If it does, how much is the housing cost?
2. How many children are there in the household?

To answer your questions

1) Yes, the housing cost comes out of the actual income, i.e. £83/week
2) There is one child in the household who is 3 years old.

Thanks, in which case your income is nicely above the Income Support level.

Thanks John.

I have got one more question which I believe is an extension of my original question.

On VAF4 (6.9.14 Does your sponsor receive any money from public fund?)

Now, I looked at the guidance notes and it doesn't mention tax credits.

So how do you think I should approach this question?

(I am thinking of YES and say "My wife is in receipt of tax credits which are already used to work out the total income of the household.") But I don't really know if I am really falling into a trap.