Help with benefits for british citizen married to asylum seeker

[kawla]

Hi, i haven't been on here for a while but i have been going through a hard timem i'm married to my DH who is an asylum seeker. I have a three month old baby and have just started university (which isn't easy!) However, i have applied for my student loan and would like to apply for the special support grant in order to get help with my housing benefit. The problem is to get the special support grant i have to be a lonee parent. I have been treated as single many times because of my husbands immigration status so therefore i am hoping i would be considered as a lone parent even in this occasion. I'd like to add that my husband obviously is prohibited from working and has no revourse to publuc funds therefore has no income whatsoever. If anyone can help me to check my entitlements please reply to this post. Thank you

no expert knowledge here but your university should have a student welfare officer or similar who should be able to help
failing that - the Citizens Advice bureaux have offices in most big towns
maybe the Refugee Council too
good luck

Thanks shallishanti.
Ive already spokent to CAB and clearly the guy i spoke to has no idea about anything. At one point he told me that I'm not entitled to child benefit and then apologized and admitted he made a mistake and told me he needs more time to understand my "strange" case ??

You need to talk to the Student Finance Centre in your University.
Good luck with this.

I would say be careful with claiming benefits -try to get by in the student loan if you can -reason being that if the asylum application is denied he may wish to apply for the 10 year partner route or the spouse visa and in both cases you would have to show that you can 'support' him so that there is a strong case to show that you won't have to rely on benefits should he be permitted. -I've been in a similar situation with my dh though wasn't a student at the time. Good luck.

Just to add -from my understanding/experience you won't be considered as a lone parent in terms of any benefits -you would be best to try to get by on less money and ensure that you guild up a bank of 'evidence' proving that you aren't a lone parent eg bills in shared names/ separate names but at same address

Okay students are only allowed to claim housing benefit in certain cases only. One is if you are a lone parent. If you have a partner you cannot claim your partner must claim. As your partner has no recourse to public funds he cannot claim. So you will not get housing benefit. He can't be ignored for housing benefit. I am sorry as I know that is not what you want to hear

You are entitled to child benefit, absolutely. You're a British citizen and your child is a British citizen. Provided you're not over the income threshold, you can claim it. He did make a mistake. Make sure you claim it.

You should be entitled to child benefit. I agree with going to see the University support or welfare officer. They will have a better idea of student entitlements to benefit IMHO.