Frequently asked questions

Benefit fraud

Our customer service standards

Overseas claimants

People from overseas who have entered the UK and applied for asylum cannot claim housing or council tax benefit.  However, you can claim if you have been granted refugee status or exceptional leave to remain in the UK or can satisfy the 'Habitual Residency Test'.

People from overseas who can claim housing or council tax benefit
If you are from one of the countries listed below, you can claim housing and/or council tax benefit, unless the Home Office say that you are to leave the UK, or if you are not judged to habitually resident.

The Habitual Residency Test is a test we must use sometimes, based on how long you have lived in the UK and on your future plans.

European Economic Areas (EEA) countries and those with charters or conventions with EEA countries:

* Workers (employed persons) from Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are required to register with the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme and will need to provide the original registration certificate with their application.

**Workers from Bulgaria and Romania will need to supply their blue registration certificate if they are a highly skilled migrant worker or skilled/low skilled worker with over 12 months continuous work experience. Skilled and low skilled workers with less than 12 months work experience will need to provide their purple accession card, and those employed under the Home Office Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) will need to provide a SAWS card. 

Self-employed workers from any of the above countries or those who have acquired worker status by being employed continuously for 12 months or more are not required to produce this documentation.  If you are a sponsored immigrant, you may not be entitled to these benefits.

Couples (including civil partners)
If one member of a married or unmarried couple or civil partnership is a person from overseas but the partner is not, the partner should make the claim in his/her name. We will then award housing benefit and council tax benefit in the normal way.