Refused benefits at 8 months pregnant

I have been living in the UK for 8 years now and have been working or been self employed pretty much the whole time. I have always provided for myself since I relocated here from Sweden. I lost my job in May this year and found out I was pregnant shortly afterwards. I signed up for Jobseekers Allowance a few weeks after losing my job and received Jobseekers Allowance, Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit for a few months. It was impossible to find employment becasue of my pregnancy and living in a small town didn't make it any easier. So, benefits were my only option. I am now 8 months pregnant and a few weeks ago I was adviced to apply for Income Support when my baby was due in 11 weeks. I did this and my Jobseekers Allowance stopped because of the Income Support application. My Council and Housing benefits stopped as well because of this. I then received a form asking me why I am in this country and how long I intend to stay. I relocated to the UK to stay permanently and this is the first time I have had to resort to applying for benefits to keep me afloat. My aim was always to start working again as soon as possible after my baby's birth.

This week I received a letter saying I am not allowed to reside in the UK for benefit purposes and would not be given any further benefits. This means I will not be able to pay my rent, bills, council tax and receive no income whatsoever. I can't even buy groceries for myself and my baby. If my appeal against the decision comes back negative I will be out on the street literally 4 weeks before my baby is due. How can they do this and what am I supposed to do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The baby is to a British father who is not able to support or help me financially as he is unemployed and doesn't live with me. Thanks, Jenny

mommabeck78

Are you Swedish??? If not, what country are you from and what is your current status in terms of residing in the UK??

Biggie.

I am Swedish yes, single and unemployed as lost my job in May and haven't been able to find new employment since because of my pregnancy. Do I need to apply for residency or right to stay? No one has told me this if so.

Jen

Jen,

This is my understanding and if incorrect l am happy to be corrected.

EEA nationals exercising Treaty rights, for example as a worker or self-employed person you are eligible to access benefits on the same basis as UK citizens, provided you meet the relevant eligibility criteria for those benefits.

Now l believe you are exercising these rights, but you need to show that YOU have a ‘right to reside’ and are ‘habitually resident’ in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland.

So l feel you need to fight your case and someone in the benefits office has had their wires crossed.

Biggie.

Thanks, I will fight them, believe you me! I am sending appeals to all divisions of the council and Jobcentre Plus and am contacting the Citizens Advice and my local MP regarding this matter as I am currently living on nothing. Can't even buy food for myself, let alone pay the rent and bills.

On top of all this the council sent me a bill for overpayment...as my Jobseekers Allowance ended before a decision was made regarding whether I was entitled to Income Support or not the council stopped my council tax and housing benefits as a result and now they're saying I owe them £450 in overpayment as the Income Support decision was delayed due to them investigating where I was from and why I am in this country...not my fault and now I have to pay this...with what money!? They are truly unbelievable! I wish I could just concentrate on the last few weeks of my pregnancy, but this is really stressing me out...and all a few days before Christmas too

Jen, if you exercised your treaty rights for 5 years (as a worker, self-employed, student, self-sufficient) then you've automatically acquired right to permanent residence. Short periods of "doing nothing" in between are disregarded. If you arrived here in 2000, then I think you automatically acquired your PR on 30 April 2006. Whatever the exact date of your PR, you now have every right to benefits. Whether they like it or not, they will have to pay you. Someone at the Job centre have not been trained properly.
Read the Home Office website, print out the info regarding the permanent residency for EEA citizen and attach it to your appeal.

Regarding benefits. Don't forget to claim maternity grant, which is £500 (sure start maternity grant). You can apply for it if you are in receipt of income support or child tax credits and you must claim from 11 weeks before due date till the baby is 3 months old.
There is also some extra money that could be paid with housing benefit, kind of an emergency fund, which they are often keep quite about. I don't remember what its called but ask your citizen advice bureau, or even your council. Since it was their own fault they put you in this difficult situation, so you need extra to get on your feet. I personally never heard about it (as I said they keep quite about it) but I read this advise on one of "benefits forums". People managed to get it, so it does exist.
All the best in your fight and pregnancy.

mommabeck78 wrote:Thanks, I will fight them, believe you me!

That's the way to go, don't give up.
I'll tell you about my appeal. I was claiming tax credits some time ago. Then when my working hours were reduced (and consequently income) I informed tax credit people so they would reassess my claim (when your income reduces your tax credit increases). So they sent me revised claim and instead of my tax credits going up, they have dramatically dropped. I called them numerous times, and each time they said they will reassess it and send a new statement. I don't know how or even if they did it, but each time the new statement was showing the same figure (well reduced). The last time I spoke to them, the guy was very rude, and in the end said to me to stop calling as I will not get anything more. I appealed and was then sent a cheque for £600+ for all the underpayments.

tasha75 wrote: There is also some extra money that could be paid with housing benefit, kind of an emergency fun

I've managed to find it. It's called Discretionary Housing Payment (google it up for more info). At the end of the day - if you don't ask it, you don't get it.

Thanks Tasha. That's very helpful.

Went to the Citizen Advice today and they couldn't do much to help. Since they're a charity they didn't know much about benefits at all, nor EU law or what laws go for EU citizens, but I am going back there tomorrow to see an advisor, so maybe they could help by making some phone calls for me at least. I also got in touch with community legal advice and they were brilliant. They called me back several times today and are really on the case due to this being urgent. It's all evry difficult to get anything sorted over the holiday period, so not the best time really, but hopefully they will be able to help me as soon as I sign their papers. Their services are free. I was told I could perhaps apply for a crisis loan and possibly incapacity benefit due to not being able to currently work. I am off to the jobcentre tomorrow as well as the council to see what they can do...and give the council back their stupid bills that keep coming through the door and I obviously can't pay!

mommabeck78, hi, how are you? Any update on your situation?

No, not yet. Guess everything just stopped over Christmas and not much will be done until after new years now. I received some papers from community legal advice and have signed the papers so they can act on my behalf. I'm hoping to hear something next week as the council is still after £450 for the "overpayments".

I am in exactly the same position, exactly!!!.... Though I have just been here 5 years. I was told that because I no longer have "worker status" being pregnant/"maternity", that I do not have a right to income related benefits. According to the research I have done, once one has completed 5 years, working, "being available to work", self sufficient, self employed and an EU national (I am German), you then acquire "permanent right to reside", which should negate the requirement for "worker status". Citizens advice bureau have really been of little help so far. I am overdue by 4 days and have nothing to my name, except owing money....... I have made my appeal to the DWP and have been waiting 4 weeks for a reply, my Housing benefit has also stopped. I wish I could take the DWP to court about this. How incompetent are they, if they can even suggest a change from JSA to Income Support , knowing that one is not a British but and EU national, it is terribly misleading and putting a " vunerable" lone, pregnant women in such a situation is disgusting, especially when you have always worked and paid taxes and NI. And you have worked here 8 years!!! I also argue that Maternity is not a given to be out of work permanently, but only makes one "temporarily unable to work". I have absolutely every intention of going back to work, who would want to live on benefits forever?? If you could, please let me know of your outcome and I shall do the same...

Article 7.3 of the EU Treaty that came into force on 30.04.06 reads :-

...... a Union citizen who is no longer a worker or self-employed person shall retain the status of worker or self-employed person in the following circumstances:

1. he/she is temporarily unable to work as the result of an illness or accident;
2. he/she is in duly recorded involuntary unemployment after having been employed for more than one year and has registered as a job-seeker with the relevant employment office;
3. he/she is in duly recorded involuntary unemployment after completing a fixed-term employment contract of less than a year or after having become involuntarily unemployed during the first twelve months and has registered as a job-seeker with the relevant employment office. In this case, the status of worker shall be retained for no less than six months;
4. he/she embarks on vocational training. Unless he/she is involuntarily unemployed, the retention of the status of worker shall require the training to be related to the previous employment.

So lefttothedogs, any suggestion from the DWP that you are no longer in the category of a worker should be resisted strenuously.

mommabeck78, it is now over two months since you posted. Any update you can give us?

Hi John. Thanks very much for the advice. I have done a little more research into the argument that Maternity only makes one "temporarily unable to work" therefore one mantains "worker status", but there seems to be problems with this. I have found some case files online, and the argument against this is that Maternity is not judged as a "sickness or accident", which are given as some of the reasons to be "temporarily unable to work".

The lawyer working against the appeal also said that looking after a child as a lone parent is a full time job and that it is difficult to say when it is "healthy" for a mother to leave her child without her full time care.....

Well, what nobody mentioned is that a sickness or an accident, could by all means leave one unable to work for a very long time indeed, where are the specifications on this rule? What kind of sickness? How long a term do they give one to be "off sick". What kind of accident? What extent of "damage" and/or recovery time do they allow for????

Also there is no mention of Maternity at all in any of these regulations...

There are serious problems with this system, and I say again, how can they lead you to believe that you may be safe for a time on benefits whilst you look after your child, they should know that EU/EEA citizens are apparently not allowed these benefits, and not even suggest it...

If I had anywhere else to go, I would have gone by now, but my life has been here for 5 years and there is nowhere for me to run to for solace.

Very, very unjust.

Very, very unjust.

I totally agree. And hate to ask the question, and don't expect an answer, but I could not help thinking, as I was reading your post, whether the pregnancy was an accident?????

And whether or not it was an accident, how on earth would DWP prove that it wasn't?

The lawyer working against the appeal also said that looking after a child as a lone parent is a full time job and that it is difficult to say when it is "healthy" for a mother to leave her child without her full time care.....

The relevance of that? The fact is that it is clear that that an employee, full-time or part-time, is within the definition of "worker" in the EU Directive.

Hi Everybody! I decided to sign in this forum since I'm in exactly the same situation as mommabeck78 and lefttothedogs I'm from Poland and have been here for nearly 3 years (too short to apply for a permanent residence but I've already been granted right to reside).
I was hoping to find out how you managed to cope with this situation girls because it seems hopeless to me I am 7 months pregnant now and I've been treated in exactly the same way as you were treated, since having been advised wrongly. I was looking for help nearly everywhere and there is nobody left now I can think of who could help me. I was wondering if your appeals against the decision were successful or not cos I still have a chance to appeal, but I'm feeling so exhausted now after all that stress I've been undergoing recently that I'm not sure if it's worth it to write another appeal and wait on pins and needles for ages for a response only to get frustrated and dissapointed yet again I will do everything for my baby but for the sake of the baby's health I don't need any more stress. I would never expect that would be the most stressful time for me and the thought that I shared all that stress with my baby is killing me, it's like a vicious circle
Please let me know girls how you managed to handle that horrible situation,maybe I will figure out how to handle it too. Please.....