My son has been told that once his wife and child join him in the UK he can claim working tax credit and child tax credit and child benefit all this together totals bout 100 pounds a week.
I confirm, yes.
My question is will the UK border agency take this amount into account when they apply for the spousal visa because without it his case is very borderline even though he is working fujll time.
At first glance, no. A few years ago para 6C was added to the Immigration Rules, and it deals with exactly this point. It reads :-
A person (P) making an application from outside the United Kingdom will be regarded as having recourse to public funds where P relies upon the future entitlement to any public funds that would be payable to P or to P's sponsor as a result of P's presence in the United Kingdom, (including those benefits to which P or the sponsor would be entitled as a result of P's presence in the United Kingdom under the regulations referred to in to paragraph 6B)".
In other words, in order to assess whether the financial test is passed or not, it is not possible to take into account benefits that will be payable if P, the visa applicant were to be granted their visa.
However it might be possible to argue that it is the son's presence in the UK that gives the entitlement to the benefits, well certainly as regards Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit, and the son is British and is not P in the wording of para 6C. It is the wife who is P and her coming to the UK does not actually increase the benefits payable.
The counter-argument of course is that the child will only move to the UK with her mother. But from the visa point of view the daughter could come here first, so I don't think that counter-argument holds much ground.
Can I ask, how much is your son earning? And if he already claiming Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit?
