Claiming Housing Benefit

[alistair_me]

Hi all,

I have read a number of feeds on the forum and I am still scratching my head in regard to the status quo on matters for claiming housing benefit.

My situation:
I am a British Citizen and my wife is a Filipino citizen. My wife came to the UK in July 2013 on a multiple entry spouse visa, however has no recourse to public funds, which I understand is the norm.

I lost my job through redundancy in October 2013 and have since made a claim for income based JSA as a single claimant, however declaring my wife at the same time. My wife does not work, however is seeking employment also.

I also submitted a claim for housing benefit, declaring my wife is living with me, however I am making the claim as a British Citizen. Birmingham City Council has since refused my claim on immigration grounds and that she has no recourse to public funds. I am not making a claim for Council Tax as this is paid for by my landlord due to being in a flat that is deemed as a multi-occupancy property. I had previously made a claim, before my wife came to the UK, for housing benefit, which was stopped due to getting employment, however when I made that claim as a single person I was given the full amount of benefit to cover paying for my rent. So, it would seem that my wife living in the property would make no difference to the amount of benefit I would receive as if I was living in the property alone. I have 30 days to submit an appeal.

I have two questions I would like to know the answer to before I appeal the council's decision:
1. Am I entitled to actually make a claim for housing benefit?
2. If I am entitled to make a claim then will this affect my wife's immigration status?

What the City Council are saying seems incredibly unfair as the situation I am in is, I hope, only temporary. It seems that the options the Council are giving to me is to either kick my wife out, so I can make a claim, or somehow pay my rent / bills / food etc using the £74 / week JSA, which doesn't even cover the rent.

Any advice is very welcome.

Thanks

[Amber]

See this thread (click).