A recent case came to our Welfare Benefits team which could set an important precedent for migrants who are relatives of EU citizens, but not EU citizens themselves. Our Welfare Benefits Supervisor explains:
“Our clients are a 69-year-old Bangladeshi gentleman and his wife. They were given leave to come to the UK under the terms of the post-Brexit agreement because their son in law is an EU national living and working here. However, after a few months the son in law’s treatment of my clients was so abusive and controlling that they were forced to move out. They moved in with another relative in the UK, but this relative is not working and could not financially support them so our clients applied for benefits in May last year. They were refused because they were no longer being supported by an EU national.
They came to us for advice, and we advised them that the only potential argument we could make on appeal was based on a new piece of case law known as the AT judgment. The high court made that decision in 2023, saying that an EU citizen should not be refused benefits here if it would leave them destitute and “unable to live in dignity”. My clients made an appeal with our help on that basis, but the DWP solicitors have argued that because our clients are family members of an EU national, rather than EU nationals themselves, the precedent set by the case law does not apply. After a long fight we were able to persuade a first-tier tribunal that the DWP’s interpretation of the law was incorrect. The tribunal judge ruled that the couple were entitled to benefits backdated to their claim in May 2023.
This is an outcome which the DWP are anxious to avoid happening again, so the DWP are seeking permission from a judge to appeal to the Upper Tribunal against the first-tier tribunal’s decision. Their decision will set down an important marker for other claimants in the same situation.”
Tower Hamlets Law Centre will provide further updates when the Tribunal decision is handed down.
