Must we cancel UK Tax credits in light of new restrictions?

[jestew]

Hi,

My British fiancee has been receiving tax credits, housing benefits and child benefits from the UK for a number of years. We moved to Ireland in Dec to begin a contract working here in order to give me (the non-EEA partner) the right to apply for a Family Permit to return with her back to the UK.

She contacted the British Govt agencies to inform them she was leaving to work in Ireland for 12 weeks and was informed that she didn't need to cancel anything until she was away for longer than 12 weeks. So we intended to continue receiving her benefits until that point.

My question is this - given the new restriction that she must prove that her "centre of life has shifted" to Ireland, will it jeopardize my application for a FP if we keep them up to the 12 weeks we are allowed? Should we cancel them now and should we return any benefits that we received for Dec? Of course the extra money is a big help, but we could find a way. It feels much more important not to risk the application for the FP being rejected. That would throw us into an appeal and I have no idea how long it would take or if it would even be successful and we've already been living so uncertainly since I asked her to marry me in 2012. I would really not want to risk my application. But I don't want to make our financial life any harder either...

Advice? Thanks!

[jestew]

So after talking with my partner for a while we have decided to continue receiving the tax credits, etc, and if it turns out to be a problem, we will write to the agency and offer to return them...

[dalebutt]

I do not know if you can legally be allowed to receive tax credits whilst abroad, but if you are talking about doing a SS and thinking if it caused any problem you will return the money back to the HMRC, it wouldn't matter if you returned the funds or not, as if it had already being cited as a reason in your initial application, it will mostly likely continue to affect subsequent applications except that there is a considerable amount of time allowed before making another application.

[jestew]

I do not know if you can legally be allowed to receive tax credits whilst abroad, but if you are talking about doing a SS and thinking if it caused any problem you will return the money back to the HMRC, it wouldn't matter if you returned the funds or not, as if it had already being cited as a reason in your initial application, it will mostly likely continue to affect subsequent applications except that there is a considerable amount of time allowed before making another application.

Thanks dalebutt for answering. Yes, we are attempting a SS route application.

Both agencies for housing benefits and tax credits have said that my fiancee has the right to continue receiving the benefits for up to 12 weeks while she is living abroad on an employment contract - which seems outrageous, but we were gratefully surprised.

Maybe my question is will UKBA have access to those kinds of records for my fiancee? Do we need to send that information to UKBA when I apply for my FP? And if we don't send them information about her benefits will they have access to her records anyway? And if we don't send them that information will that be perceived as trying to hide something and jeopardize my FP application?

Thanks!