Supreme Court: Fees for Children Registering as British Citizens
Supreme Court dismisses challenge to the level at which the government has set fees for children to register as British Citizens
In an important decision about the rights of refugees to financial support for children, the Court of Appeal in England & Wales has agreed with their colleagues in Scotland - refugees can make backdated tax credit claims.
This summary by Tom Royston’s summary of R (DK) v Revenue and Customs [2022] EWCA Civ 120: in an important decision about the rights of refugees to financial support for children, the Court of Appeal in England and Wales has agreed with their colleagues in Scotland: refugees can make backdated child tax credit claims.
The refugee in this case was a Sri Lankan man known as DK. He claimed asylum in December 2009 and was refused three times, before eventually securing refugee status ten years later.
DK then applied for backdated child tax credit in respect of his son, who had by now turned 18 and left full-time education but was a qualifying child for much of the period during which his father’s asylum claims were pending. He relied on regulation 3 of the Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003:
(4) Where a person has submitted a claim for asylum as a refugee… in the first instance he is not entitled to tax credits, subject to paragraphs (5) to (9).
(5) If that person –
(a) is notified that he has been recorded by the Secretary of State as a refugee or has been granted section 67 leave, and
(b) claims tax credit within one month of receiving that notification…
(6) He shall be treated as having claimed tax credits –
(a) on the date when he submitted his claim for asylum…
In other words, you could claim a lump sum calculated from the date you claimed asylum. The rationale is that you had been a refugee, and thus entitled to benefits, all along — it just took the Home Office a while (a decade, in this case) to officially confirm that via the asylum process.
Child Poverty Action Group says that some newly recognised refugees may still be in line for backdated payments:
Those providing advice to newly recognised refugees will need to calculate their client’s potential retrospective entitlement to CTC [child tax credit] to assess if they can benefit from the Court of Appeal’s judgment… The maximum period your client should claim for is between the date of their first claim for asylum, and their subsequent claim for Universal Credit (if UC has now been claimed). As with the claimant in DK, entitlement might end earlier, for example if a qualifying young person left full time education before UC was claimed.
The crucial thing is to apply within one month of the grant of refugee status. Child Poverty Action Group has a step-by-step guide and resources to help benefits advisors trying to help refugees with a claim.
