Terms & Conditions

[stevedaymond]

We have a claimant who has quite happily been receiving HB and CTB since 2003. We have sent out a BACS take up letter and he has very nicely replied stating he cant set up a bank account because he has lost all of his ID documents. He is having problems in obtaining a new ones as he was born in Canada in 1958 and cant get a copy birth certificate in order to get a passport and open bank accounts etc.

He states he has British parents who were in Canada when he was born. He is not sure why they were there (not in the services etc). They have both died and he has no evidence of their nationalities. He has said his family moved to the UK in 1971 (although he still has a very strong accent).

We have faxed the Home offce for clarification of his nationality and they have no record of him, so he is either British and they would not have him on their records, or he is Canadian and never bothered to formalise his status in the UK.

The problem we have now is he has nothing to confirm his nationality and we are struggling to think of ways that we could check for him. In order to get a duplicate Canadian birth certificate you have to have a guarantor who is living in the region of Canada that you were born who has known you for over 2 years to sign the form and verify you are who you say you are. The problem being he has been in the UK for 37 years so does not know anyone over there.

Any ideas on how we could clarify his nationality?

[Trevor Kenward]

Could you not ask him whether he likes maple syrup and ice hockey or fish n chips and footie!

[Neil Adamson]

Bumping this one up as we are now at the critical stage.

Any assistance much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

If he is already on HB from 2003 then you must have accepted whatever ID he supplied then.

Why would you want to check his ID again?

[Anonymous]

As he has lived here for over 5 years now, (even if he did not live here before his HB claim – well, you said he still had a very strong accent!!), would that not confer certain rights on him that may get you round the problem.
Presumably he has worked at some time and has a NINO (otherwise you wouldn’t have paid him in the first place), so maybe you (or your claimant) could start at that point, as he must have had some documentation with him at that time to have been awarded a NINO. Maybe? 8)

[stevedaymond]

Our forms followed the DWP good practive guide so did not ask nationality and only asked if they had returned to the UK in the last 2 years (this has been changed now). We also accepted bank statements and utility bills as ID so no help there.

Based on when the claimant stated her began residing in the UK he would have gone through the UK educational system and had a NINO issued when he left school so no luck there either.

We need evidence of his nationality now as he has only just declared to us that he was born outside of the UK so hence we need evidence he is eligible for benefits in the UK.

[Author]

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