Homeless, pregnant and not 'British Citizen'

[valencia88]

Hello,

I have been here for 9 years, working most of the time, but apparently thet cant find evidence to support this so I can not apply for any help or income support but JSA Contribution for 6 months.

I have been kicked out of my flatshare, cause babies arent allowed, I'm due in 3 months - what rights do I have?

I have already been down this road of collecting a hundred millions different documents p45, p60s to show how much tax I have paid over the years, but to no avail.

I am NOT with the dad who is a British Citizen. I am staying in a woman's living room I met through church and I need to leave her and her house alone but cannot get a job as no one wants to employ a pregnant woman.

I have a swedish passport so I have the right to live here but nothing else. What happens when my daughter comes, will I still be homeless? The council is saying they cannot provide me with housing unless I have an "INCOME" and contribution ESA/JSA does not count.

I honestly have NO idea what to do.

Where are you from originally?

valencia I’m hoping you get some sound advice from CAB and elsewhere. I’m not sure why this thread has become full of people barking at you to ‘go home’. It’s obvious that you no longer feel Sweden is your home and totally natural that you want to stay where your support system is. Fingers crossed for you.

People are constantly saying “go home” not because they don’t want the OP here (with a couple of exceptions) but because they are aware of the difference between the U.K. and Swedish social support system. I’m sure if she’d said she was Greek she wouldn’t be getting nearly the same number of comments of that nature.

However she’s not going to, so it’s getting tedious.

You’ve had lots of good advice about accessing official help and housing. I’d just say that the person who has the primary, unarguable duty to support your daughter is her father. If he was homeless or abusive, or you wanted to leave the UK then that would be different, but none of these apply so he has to be the first port of call. I’d even consider a move to his location - having a co-parent on hand will make finding work much easier. Does he have family who might help, and do they live near him? Again grandparental care can make all the difference to single working parents. Bear in mind tat if your local council does accept that they need to house you then as a single parent with no job or school tying you to London you’d be a prime candidate for an out of borough placement, which might be anywhere. However you shouldn’t move if that will jeopardise your housing status with the local council: Shelter or the CAB can advise.

The father to my daughter isn’t a horrible individual, but a absolute let down of a partner - for me. I do not believe he would want his daughter to grow up without her mother. I would never allow this to happen.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

No one thinks their ex will screw them over, but it happens all the time.

Totally agree with @serbska

I never in a million years thought my ex would walk out on our DD and never pay towards/see her.
If I hadn't had my back up plan I'd be fucked.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best is good advice in some circumstances and it’s good to have a backup plan, but given that the OP has literally no resources at the moment, if there’s a decent possibility that the girl’s father or paternal GPs can be a real source of support or childcare you wouldn’t want to rule that out just in case they turn out to be controlling nightmares. It’s a balancing act.

* if you child is a british citizen and her father, who has equal parental rights to you, refuses you permission to take her out of the U.K.*.

But considering the OP is not married to the British father the baby will not be a British citizen. The OP can apply for a passport for the child which she will need to do at the Swedish embassy and unless a court order that the passport needs to be surrendered the OP can take the child out of the country whenever she pleases.

The OPs intention is that the father will register the birth with her shellshocked, so it doesn’t matter that they aren’t married.

Have you got any answers from talking to CAB or Shelter, OP?

Will the ex actually agree to register the birth? If he doesn't she will have to go through the legal process to establish that he is the father.