Benefits for separated Polish wife and 2 kids in the UK

Does anybody know what a Polish woman in the following circs can claim?

- separated but not yet divorced (husband Polish and also in the UK, but not living with her)
- two children, aged 5 and 7 (children from the separated marriage)
- recently just come to the uk with about £1K and not much else, and currently living in one room with the kids but about to be kicked out as the landlord doesn't allow children

- her plan is to work part-time cleaning in a hotel, and learn English
- why is she here? so the kids can see their father and because she didn't want to be left behind in Poland

?
Child benefit, yes. Family tax credit, yes. Council tax benefit, working tax credit, housing benefit? I think yes, but what does that depend on? Does she have to have been here for 6 months?

Please don't give me a lot of talk about how she shouldn't be coming on the system ... enough Brits do, and she is only accessing a perfectly legal reciprocal social security system between the UK and Poland. No judging, just facts and experience, please. Thanks.

Why didn't he go back ? Why isn't he helping her ?


How long has her husband been here for ? I think he would need to be here a year before they can claim anything. The fact that they are no longer together will be a factor, but these days single-mums get a better deal than couples who stay together, so it may work in her favour.

She needs to find her nearest benefit office and go and find out the situation and start filling in the forms.


What would an unemployed single-mum from Britain get if she pitched up in Poland asking the way to the benefits office ?

By rights she should go home, I'm all for the immigration thing but people coming to england to sponge from our social security really winds me up, Tell her to give ryanair £50 and go back to poland

That's asking a bit much isn't it? A tall order for the kind of responses you will get.

Just because British citizens can claim welfare benefits, the idea that these people are all a drain on the system is an idea that tends to get blown up out of all proportion. When I was a youngster, my parents claimed child benefit (although this wasn't much), but at the same time I had two working parents for most of my childhood. Having said that, since then I have received NO BENEFITS WHATSOEVER, and I work to pay (rightly in the majority of cases) for others to receive benefits, and hopefully when I retire, they'll give me enough to buy a potato every couple of weeks.

So the children can see their father? How much interest does he have in them if he disappears to another country. I know that ideally every child has two parents, but (and I quote the hysterical mother who occasionally appears on the Simpsons) what about the children? Moving to another country for the benefit of being closer to a father who fled in the first place? It doesn't appear that way to me.

I'm happy for European citizens to be free to come here and work. "How much can I earn?" but to ask "How much will I be given?"

Am I just in a bad mood this evening or what?

I think that comment is more than fair and spot on!

I have to agree with that one. If she came here already separated from her husband, I really don't see why Britain should now be having to support her. She came here knowing the score. If she thinks that getting a job as a cleaner, while she lives in one room she is about to be evicted from, is somehow worth her kids seeing their Dad, then she is daft. Parents splitting up must be bad enough, without the stress and upheaval of living on welfare in another country.

Do these kids a favour and go back to Poland.


Exactly. Also, just because others do it, doesn't make it a good idea.

natasia tell your sponging friend to take her offspring and **** off back to poland.

That women sounds like a joke. I really don't want to see fellow europeans stoop as low as somalians.

I have to agree... It's unfair to come here with the sole intention of claiming benefits from our government - we have enough of our own doing that (like noimmigration and his family). We pay a lot of tax to fund such benefits and it's part of the reason many of us struggle to make ends meet.

It's the wrong attitude to have and it won't be met with kind words, especially in here... Sorry :/

I believe it's the rule that you have to have paid National Insurance for 18 months before you can claim any benefits.

With all due respect I hope she gets declined from the benefit system. Your friend needs to return home to Poland. Even if she did get benefits she wouldn't make many British friends. There should be no such thing as "take and no give." It should be give and take. Your friend is not here to contribute to Britain, she is here to take from Britain. I'm sorry but I hope she is forced back home. I don't want to have to pay for foreign nationals out of my weekly earnings.

I'm not giving advice to someone that wants to take from me!

At this rate it'll probably be a potato once a year!


Nope!

I wonder how many others have come here with the same intentions, surely this is not an isolated case!

She needs to go back to her own country.

But we all know she will be on the UK pay roll, because our government love giving the money out.

Unless you have worked all your life and never claimed a penny in that case it is a different matter all together...!

maybe ... you have made quite a lot of negative assumptions ; )

The father:
- didn't flee anywhere or anybody - he came to the uk to work so he could earn for the family
- he has constantly supported the family completely - he is the sole breadwinner and pays for everything
- he is paying for everything so far over here as well, but can't afford to do so for very long

He isn't a bastard in terms of giving financial support. But if they are separated and she needs to be independent, this is when the state (whichever state) has a duty to assist. Well, did the last time I looked. They would do it for me or you (although you aren't a mother, but for whatever else you might need) and that's the deal - if you need it, you get it; if you don't, you don't, but you count yr chickens that you aren't in that situation.

I think ...

LOL...


So now the English gov should pay?


She should get a job? No?


Unless she has paid NI she doesn't deserve a penny (fact) - It's a bit like a pay as you go mobile - if you don't have any credit you dont get any calls? Does that make sense to you?

As hard as it is, she would be better off going back home.

natasia, after all you posted here, i think that she should go back to Poland... not much to whine about here anymore...

It would of been better if you didn't say anything. You just annoy me with your crap talk. I get cut of around £600 a month in tax for doughnuts like you. You're a disgrace. I will say it again - "I really don't want to see fellow europeans stoop as low as somalians".

This is one bears repeating:


Bravo.
Coming from a country that receives and (for some reason or another) accepts many immigrants claiming benefits (i didn't say Poles), this strikes a sore spot with me too. Liberal immigration policies are certainly effective in middle class' standard of living (but don't get me started on the hand outs and tax cuts big business receives).

It's easy for me to criticize not being in her position but I guess that means my opinion should at least be more objective than one in her position. Your "friend" will do as she figures is best for "her" but don't be surprised at the negative reactions.

Anyone know the answer to the question asked?

(maybe you can check for her on this site or something for council tax and such? : gov.uk/apply-council-tax-reduction - council tax eligibilty check and here: gov.uk/apply-housing-benefit-from-council - Check+your+eligibility+for+Housing+Benefit+with+your+local+council..+general link: dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/workage/wa_visit_or_living_abroad.asp

Someone please lock this thread, Its disgusting how people see Britain as a place where they can live on free handouts.

If she can't speak english, she hasn't got a job and she isn't willing to get one then she isn't welcome. What can she possibly contribute to our failing economy. What is she expecting to do in the UK that she can't do in Poland. If her husband left her then i'm sure she and her children will get over it its a fact of life and happens all over the world every day. My dad left my mother when I was 18 months old and she studied and held down a full time job in order to raise me, pay a mortgage and put food on the table and never once tried to claim anything. What the **** is wrong with people nowadays.

Sorry about the rant but as a British taxpayer anyone who doesn't work and contribute to the economy in some way makes me sick!

I wonder what I could claim in poland? I spent 3 months living on 500 pln per month until my business took off and was literally destitute at the time did I think about trying to claim anything? NO

I suggest she checks out ryanair.co.uk

well..


Understandable and I am a British Taxpayer too. At least she is planning to work..?

Some of my comments may have looked negative. They were. But I was responding to something else that was, as I read it at the time, also negative.

I could repeat what I had already said about growing up in a family with two working parents who managed to claim a small amount of child benefit.

I could mention that amongst the people I count as friends, some are immigrants or children of immigrants from both Europe and beyond.
I describe myself as an open-minded liberal. Liberalism in its true form does not mean blindness to the greed of others (there are many worse cases than the one we are discussing here though). It is also not an act of charity.


Perhaps I could have taken comments like this into account. It was more the attitude of "what can I get" that annoyed me. Get yourself a job, make yourself useful.

So she wants to work part time in a Hotel cleaning, Great contribution people! The Uk's economy is saved!

Surely she would end up claiming more than she is actually contributing?

I guess she expects a subsidised/free house?
Money to decorate this said house?
Money to raise her children (whom are not UK citizens)
Money to pay for bills etc,

Sorry but it is disgusting that someone from overseas thinks they have the right to come to britain and leach off society like that.

If you asked the question "what could she do to find work and childcare" then I would be more than happy to help as much as I possibly can.

If she is interested in finding a well payed job, drop me a PM and i'll see what is available as I have very good access to vacancies across the country due to the nature of my job. (I would do it on a helpful basis ie not for profit)

It is not the "duty" of the UK to assist your friend. How dare you suggest that it is!! How many British people are leeching of your benefit system ?

"If you need it, you get it...." - What planet are you from ? There are plenty of needy BRITISH people that don't qualify for benefits. Should they go to Poland instead ?

If your friend had lived and WORKED here for a 4 or 5 years, I wouldn't have an issue.


She has access to the internet, she could have found that herself. I think she has come on here to stir up trouble and cause bad feeling, so she can then say she is a victim of the racist British.

Natasia and your friend - You're both a disgrace to your nation.

its will cost £5000 to send each child to school, and she is going to cover this by working part time, cleaning hotels.

I don't normally agree with "noimmigration", but I'm getting increasingly fed up with foreign workers coming here, thinking that cleaning and other similar jobs will somehow make their contribution to the economy something we can't live without.

Where are all the doctors, lawyers and architects ?

If we didn't have a benefit system, or charged foreign nationals for things like schools and the NHS, people like natasia's friend wouldn't have bothered coming here in the first place.

I'm working on it :D

I suppose so. I'll just shrug to that because that is the case with many questions asked here.

This woman is only asking to what her friend is entitled to (not in our/your opinions, but legally). I understand and agree with many points made, and think she should get a job...I can only say at least it is on the cards which is better than the cases of some people I know (UK Nationals).

natasia why doesnt your friend hang herself like the last two poles who couldnt speak english and couldnt cope.