British Passport for Child Of EEA National and treaty rights

[maryannstar]

Hiya

I am completely lost using this site and hope I am posting in the correct place!!

I am really hoping that someone can shed some light on a situation that a friend of mine is currently facing with regards to obtaining a British passport for her daughter under the fact that she has been exercising treaty rights.
She moved here from Portugal in 2004 and has been working the entire time she has been here. All be it she has been claiming Tax Credits for a majority of this time as she went on to have her son in the UK in 2005. She obtained her residency card in 2006 I believe and has lived in the UK continuously ever since. She is aware that she would have to apply for British citizenship for her son as she was not exercising treaty rights for 5 years prior to him being born here, but she felt it would be quite straight forward when it come to applying for a British passport for her daughter who was born in 2014 on the grounds that she had been exercising treaty rights for a number of years (more than 5).
She has since submitted her application into the passport office with all the supporting documentation only to now be told that due to her claiming tax credits she would need to register her daughter as a British citizen at a cost of £900 and something pounds??
But surely her daughter is British by birth given the circumstances??
She was told that because she had been claiming Tax Credits for a period longer than 9 months then she would not be able to pursue obtaining a passport for her daughter via the route of exercising treaty rights??
This is the first she ahs heard of this and I cannot find anything anywhere which states this ??
Please could anyone give any advice on this .
Many Thanks