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?