Single father homeless

[Brumbies]

Hoping someone can advise me.

Single father of 6 year old daughter, lives overseas. Now split from partner and has full custody. Father and daughter both hold British passports. Mother doesn't and accepts the situation.

He wants to come back to the UK with his girl as he has distant family here and was born and raised here. but doesn't have family he could stay with, he has no money either (another long story).

Can anyone advise what his options are? Apart from getting here in a dinghy from France! If he presents himself to council offices would they be obliged to house him and his girl?

Thanks anyone who can help.

I think your friend needs to understand just how much it has changed since he left. There is a housing crisis and IF the state will help him (which I'm not sure they will), he and his dd are likely to end up in one room of a B&B. He needs to understand that having his DD with him will not be a passport to decent accommodation & benefits.

He won't be able to work full time because he will need to be with his 6yo, doing school run etc. Not working full time, he is unlikely to be able to afford to rent a home. He and his dd would be extremely poor.

Or he could come to the UK, on his own, work full time immediately without having to worry about childcare, and send money home to give his dd a better life in her home country. At some point in the future, perhaps aiming for senior school, he could bring her to the UK when he has built himself a work history, a little financial reserve and somewhere decent to live.

No, no eligibility to anything for 3 months minimum.

If he can afford to fly himself and his daughter to the U.K., he can raise enough money to support them.

It's a crazy idea but he could consider getting a job

PLEASE İGNORE POSTERS SAYİNG HE WOULD BE HELPED by council.
Council DO NOT help people who have been abroad for the first three months of returning to UK. You also cannot get benefits for the first three months of returning to the UK from abroad. Doesn't matter if you're a UK citizen. The protocol is that they refer you to social services and social services liase with council (if they're a good social services), or they can put your child on a protection order due to homelessness. This happened to me. My friend who was in a similar situation went to a DİFFERENT council and their social services helped them with temporary accomodation, but not all social services are the same. You also have to go to a council where you have family ties or the council of the airport you arrive at for them to help you.

He can go to his local consulate or embassy, they will be the ones who advise him on this situation.

Yep.

Especially as the thread is about a "single father", that most sainted of beasts (even though he's possibly not single?) rather than a "single mother" or even a "single parent".

How is he going to pay for flights - if he has money for flights surely he has money for housing .

I also have concerns how contact with mum will continue if back in the uk.. this can also be very damaging

Who is your sister to the child, and how is she involved in all of this?

Does the father have close family links elsewhere in the world?

Also the asylum seekers aren't given houses and full benefits when they arrived. They get about twenty quid a week and either a room in a BnB or worse. I lived next to the barracks they were housed (locked up) in.

As pp said would make a lot more sense if he came back and got a job and sent money back to the mum and child and then brought them over when he's settled. Mum can come over on a family visa via her child.

Is this guy actually living homeless on the street in Vietnam with his daughter? While the mother perhaps eats cavier in a penthouse and gives not a thought to either of them? Surely his first port of call should be the Vietnamese authorities? And what does your sister have to do with any of this?

He would be referred to social services as they don't house families who have come from abroad, and social services would want evidence of estranged mother.

Also, you can't just choose a council. You have to go to the council where you have family ties or the council of where you entered the UK.

Not trying to pick apart your suggestions, just wanted OP to be aware, as I've done this.

I don't think she can. She won't be able to meet the financial requirements on her own.
Also, who would be responsible for supporting her? Can she meet the English language requirements?

Remember social services have a responsibility to house the child. Not the father. The child could well be put into foster care till dad sorts himself out.

He has a British passport - I sincerely hope he will be supported when he gets here. My understanding is that the duty of care will be for the child, and for that reason, and for the very fact that as a 1st world country we cannot have children sleeping on the streets he and his child will be helped!

British people returning to the UK with the intention to be permanent residents can start using the NHS free at point of use straight away. I know, because I came back to the UK when 7 months pregnant.

I'm assuming that he is currently in Vietnam.

How is he supporting himself financially?

He won't. I've been in the exact situation. İt will be up to social services what happens to them as a pair for the first three months They'll either foster the child, put them both in a parent and child foster home, or contact his distant relative and force them to go on their sofa. The third was my situation, until I made a fuss and was put (locked) in a foster home with a protection order on my child. However, social services might pay for a hotel for them.

She would have to come over as his partner and he can support her until she can find work etc.

How's your sister involved. Is she the mother?

This. He could end up on the streets with his child in care.

Nonsense.

Illegals arriving here get help straightaway without children.

Annnd there it is...the thinly disguised purpose of the whole thread.

@Dontcallmescarface exactly.

🤬
Bloody hell.

I'd rather have an 'illegal' here wanting to live and work to escape problems than some entitled twat who has contributed nothing to the uk, is dragging his child away from his poor mum to live in a fucking hostel out of choice and then presumably will be screaming that he's not got anywhere to live.

Referring to people as illegals is abhorrent by the way. As is suggesting he gets here on a dingy.

If your friend is as xenophobic as you are, I'd rather he stays where he is, thanks