Terms & Conditions

[Mike Bailey]

Looking for some assistance please on an appeal I have received.

Claimant is Romanian. He has a Romanian partner who is a student but has no children. He entered UK November 2009. Became a student 16 hours per week on an English for Speakers of Other Languages course. He has a Registration Certificate (granted May 2010) allowing him to work for 20 hours per week. He commenced work September 2010 for 16 hours per week. At some point before his HB claim his study time on his course has reduced to just 4 hours per week.

He has been refused HB prior to April simply on the grounds that he is a student from abroad. I am now looking to reconsider that decision and refer to tribunal if necessary.

I am trying to get my head around whether he does count as a “student” if it is only 4 hours per week, and whether the change in his student hours affects his registration certificate and it should be disregarded.

I would be grateful for advice on whether we should be paying HB and if not some pointers as to the relevant regulations I would need to be highlighting in my appeal response for tribunal.

Thank you.

[Kay_Tade]

You have 2 separate issues, firstly is he a student for HB purposes and eligible to claim? Secondly does he have R2R? From the details on your post I would treat him as a “worker” because he is only studying for 4 hours a week.

[Mike Bailey]

I do not consider him to be a “full-time student” for HB purposes and would not exclude him for that reason. However it seems his “student” status has earned him his registration certificate and right to work up to 20 hours bypassing the worker authorisation scheme. Can I disregard the registration certificate because I do not consider him to be a student (and is there a different definition of student for the purposes of obtaining a registration certificate) and then say he is excluded by reason of not having worker authorisation?

[Kay_Tade]

That’s it, the certificate, in itself, confers R2R as a “student” so it becomes of no use as soon as one no longer is a student. You will need to look at other issues to determine if they have R2R. If UKBA are aware of their current circumstances and have not revoked the certificate then I would be happy to treat as a worker.

[Julie Gough]

Hi Can anyone help please I`m confused.

I am reviewing a claim that I am not sure should have ever been put into payment. The claimant and Partner applied in July 2009 both were full time students (student certificates provided confirm this) the claimant was a sponsored student but not sure who sponsored by. The claimant was also working 20 hours per week. We never checked for the worker authorisation scheme (entered the country 27/5/09)and the regs state that students need to be self sufficient for HB/CTB purposes. Does the worker status override the student status?

thanks

[stevedaymond]

You only need to find one route into entitlement so the worker status will be ok to make them eligible as long as the work was legal.

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