ILR and Child Tax Credits

Hi all

My sister, her now 17 yr old daughter and I moved to the UK in 2013. I have a British passport because of where I was born but my sister came over on an ancestry visa with my niece as a dependant.

She is due to apply for ILR.

However, 2 years ago, she applied for child tax credits as she had heard from someone that if you had been in the country for three years you could so so. She was open and above board, said she was on an ancestry visa and gave them copies of her passport and of course visa. They gave her the credits and she received these for a year after which time they did a review and told her she was not due to these credits and must repay. It has been backwards and forwards since then. They handed her account to a debt collector and she had to fill in an income and expenditure statement. This company then got back to her and said they could not accept a payment for her because of her income and referred the matter back to HMRC.

We have heard nothing from anyone since then.

We do not have the money to pay this upfront but do not know if there is anything else that can be done.
We are desperate as we do not have long to apply for ILR

Please... any advice/help would be much appreciated?

How much does she have to pay back?

If she is not in a repayment plan with HMRC or paid it back in full and have a letter from HMRC stating this, it would be risky to apply for ILR as HO do check if benefits were claimed.

She was not entitled to it as her visa would have clearly stated 'no recourse to public funds', tax credits is public funds unless claimed JOINTLY with a British spouse or ILR holder spouse.