Seeking Advice on Habitual Residence Legislation

Just posting an update ,we received a notification that my tenant failed his G.P.O.W. ASSESSMENT ,having read up on it now he was doomed to fail as he didn,t appear with an offer of employment, that the only way his J.S.A. would have been continued for a short time then his employment opportunity taken up . I.m not so sure that the D.W.P. fully understand that although people are TALKING UP our economy it is still hard for people out there.
We recently received our Tribunal papers ,just waiting for a date to appear ,no Legal aid available for this so enquired with a professional body to represent David, that came in estimated @ £2500, so that option is out .Anybody got any pointers to move forward, Iv,e just been told SHELTER would be worth calling or THE LAW CENTRE, Due to this Legistlation I bet there are Hundreds or even thousands affected and it will increase.

I would like to give a final update on this case , My Tenant appeared at a Tribunal hearing in Weymouth at the start of August 2015.Unfortunately I could not attend it,but I am pleased to report from my tenant that he WON his case.I am not privy to the finer points of what was said ,but clearly in his case having lived here virtually all his life and having had employment at times during his working career it would appear that the court didn,t see him as a job seeker ,more as a worker,The DWP appear to box new arrivals from outside the Country as potentially job seekers and therefore they are afforded different entitlements.Clearly each case is seen on its own individual merits but it was nice to see that our views prevailed in this case.

Reply to the comment left by "Graham Durkin" at "14/09/2015 - 11:09":

Graham, Whilst being pleased for you and your tenant (Oh for the days when having a British parent gave you citizenship) I have to ask why, having lived her since he was 9 months old, did he choose to hold a German as opposed to British passport.

I hope he finds employment soon.

Reply to the comment left by "Graham Durkin" at "14/09/2015 - 11:09":

Hi Graham

I too and pleased to read your update.

My thoughts on this are; "what a waste of Court time time and the tax payers money!"
.

Reply to the comment left by "Teg's Dad" at "14/09/2015 - 20:01":

Hi Teg dad, The main reason why he was given a German passport was that his mother was German, he was born in a German hospital and they were not married .I believe if he was born in a British base hospital things might be different.
To be fair to him ,he has just gone through his life like any other person ,its when the GOVERMENT start bringing in legislation that can then be used RETROSPECTIVELY ,this then causes untold problems ,remember this H.R.LEGISTLATION started in the mid 90,s and there have been various amendments culminating in the major 2014 change that has now created this iceberg of problems. My post clearly stated he has lived in this country as a BRIT since he was 7 mths old continuously and they still went after him. He never concerned himself with legistlation until 2014 because it never affected him. Hindsight clearly now says he should have gone for the BRITISH passport but it costs I believe around a £1000 and you are not guaranteed a passport . Hope this helps

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "15/09/2015 - 10:21":

Hi Mark, At the outset we always felt that he had a case ,but when they can use this legislation RETROSPECTIVELY then it just scoops everybody up and put them in the same situation taking on the D.W.P. There must be thousands of people going through the appeals process and the overall costs must be enormous

This is probably cheap when you compare it to paying around £200 a week towards each of our M P,s food bill every week and the free Office flowers,taxi rides and pizza,s for those that work late in the offices ,plus renting out their spare place to another M.P. and the TAXPAYER picks up the RENT BILLL. But lifes not that bad is it.

Reply to the comment left by "Graham Durkin" at "15/09/2015 - 20:18":

My children (both adults now) were both born in the UK but in our case, both their parents are foreign nationals (belgian and german): the law with regard to automatic british citizenship in such cases had changed by the time they were born (mid 1980's), hence why neither of them is british. It never bothered us, … and they've lived and worked all their lives in the UK like all Brits. In fact, my son didn't realise that he wasn't british, until I once checked a form he had filled in, and he had ticked the 'UK national' box by mistake. The lack of british citizenship has so far never affected either of them, even when they have sometimes found themselves unemployed, like that tenant of yours.

My children might have been lucky, … but I think it was more a case of your tenant being unlucky: anything to do with the DWP is 'box-ticking', … and you sometimes need to read their questions two / three times before figuring out what they are after. It's very easy to put a tick in the wrong little box, … and only realise many stages later that 'something' is 'not quite right'. But since it is virtually impossible to find someone willing to engage their braincells, … (and correct the little box that was initially wrongly ticked), ... the wrong box-ticking exercise carries on instead, ... at tax-payers expenses!

Anyway, I'm pleased to hear of the positive outcome for your tenant. Shame it had to take that long, as it must have been terribly nerve-wrecking for him. He is very lucky to have a landlord like you, willing to help him fight his corner.

Reply to the comment left by "Frankie Brys" at "16/09/2015 - 13:07":

Thank you for your comment, The regulations have been tightened up so much in 2014 in view of the number of people from around the world who wish to settle in the U.K. I can fully understand the Governments view on this matter and I would agree that we are to generous to those that come and abuse the system and something needed to be done ,but when the law is changed and then implemented retrospectively then that is unfair, but this case was only the tip of the ICEBERG. Anybody that now finds themselves UNEMPLOYED needs to be aware that times are a changing and landlords need to be on their game as the Housing benefit gets stopped immediately following the D.W.P INTERVENTION and in my case initially cost me £900 rent ,till we won the case and it was paid .The irony of this is that if you are signed off sick by your doctor you are then entitled to .J.S.A.AND HOUSING BENEFIT until assessed by an independent doctor due to being unfit for work where before you were not due to being fit .what a strange affair.