TCM0078600 - Claims - work lists (VFs - 1 to 12): Verification Failures work list - Rule 12 - Residency criteria not met (post award) (Info)

This guidance should only be followed for post award cases. If the case you’re dealing with is pre-award, follow the guidance in TCM0078580.

A Verification Failures work list entry will be created if a customer hasn’t confirmed whether they satisfy one or more of the following residency rules

• they are a United Kingdom (UK) national
• they are subject to immigration control
• they live in the UK
  and, if applicable
• they work in the UK.

To resolve the verification failure, you must establish

• if they are a UK national and, if not, if they satisfy the nationality criteria that entitles them to be eligible for tax credits
• if they live in the UK and, if not, if they are still eligible for tax credits
  and, if applicable
• if they work in the UK and, if not, if they are still eligible for tax credits.

To do this, you must first establish if the claim was made by one or two customers and then check the residency details held on the computer.

Note: From April 2004, question 1.8 on the claim form asks ‘Are you subject to immigration control?’ instead of ‘Are you a UK National?’. When you are following this guidance. you must to ask the question ‘Are you subject to immigration control?’, not ‘Are you a UK National?’.

Note: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia are commonly referred to as the A8 member states. This is because up to 30 April 2011, unless exempt from registration, nationals from these member states were required to register their employment with the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). This scheme came to an end on 30 April 2011 and from 1 May 2011 nationals from the A8 member states working in the UK are no longer required to register their employment with the Home Office. From 1 May 2011 customers arriving from these member states are treated in the same way as nationals from any other EU member state.

Note: From 1 January 2007, the following countries became members of the EU - Bulgaria and Romania. Customers who are nationals of these countries (known as ‘A2 nationals’) can only claim CTC if they have the right to reside in the UK (generally as a result of legally working in the UK).

Note: From 1 July 2013, Croatia became a member of the EU. Customers who are Croatian nationals can only claim CTC if they have the right to reside in the UK (generally as a result of legally working in the UK).

Note: If a joint claim has failed residency because both customers have stated they aren’t UK nationals and you later establish that at least one customer isn’t subject to immigration control, you can change the verification status from ‘not verified’ to ‘verified’ as long as the customer also lives and, if applicable, works in the UK.

Note: If the customer has only failed residency because they aren’t living and/or working in the UK but it’s obvious that they do, then you can accept that the customer lives and/or works in the UK. For example, the failed customer states that they live in Preston and their address is Preston, Lancashire, then you can accept that the customer lives in the UK.

You must then, if necessary, contact the customer to confirm, where appropriate, the customer’s

• nationality
• country that they live in, and, if they don’t live in the UK, whether they satisfy one of the exemption criteria
• country they work in, and, if they don’t work in the UK, whether they satisfy one of the exemption criteria.

From the results of your enquiries, you will

• change the verification status if the customer now satisfies all of the residency rules, but the details held on the computer are correct
• amend the customer’s details on the computer if you’re able to identify, or if the customer confirms that they’re
  • a UK national
  • living in the UK
    and, if applicable
  • working in the UK
• reject the claim if the customer
  • doesn’t satisfy all of the residency rules
    or
  • doesn’t respond to a request for information within the normal reminder cycle
• refer the verification failure to the International Team, if one of the customers is a Crown Servant overseas and the customer’s partner hasn’t been allocated with a NINO, or if you have established that the claim is a cross-border case. For example, the customer lives in the UK but works outside the UK or the customer works in the UK but lives outside the UK
• refer the verification failure to the Persons From Abroad (PFA) Team if further specialist action is needed to establish if the customer satisfies the immigration rules but they do satisfy the other residency criteria
  or
• change the Decision Status on the claim and end the household from the date that the customer’s eligibility ends, if the customer is temporarily absent from the UK.

Note: Use TCM0128000 for ‘Residency And Immigration Rules’. You may need to refer to these rules before you can make a decision on the action to take to resolve a residency verification failure.

Note: If customer 1 and/or customer 2 fail verification on residency grounds, a verification failure will not be created for customer 2. The details of customer 2 need to be checked in every case to establish if or why they have failed verification on residency grounds.

Note: If the claim has failed verification on Residency and Applicant Not Matched, you must consider both of the failures at the same time and as far as possible, only contact the customer once. If you have to transfer the claim to a specialist section and there is an outstanding Applicant Not Matched verification failure, transfer the claim to the specialist section and then continue with your Applicant Not Matched action and refer details of the verification failure to the Specialist Trace Unit (STU) if necessary.

There is an Action Guide for this subject, select TCM0078620 to access it