If your partner isn’t in the UK - and you don’t have children

If you’ve come to the UK, are working and your partner has stayed behind in their own country, you may get Working Tax Credit as a single person.

If your partner joins you in the UK you’ll need to let the Tax Credit Office know within a month. This is because your tax credits payments may change.

Your child lives abroad

If you’re working, you’ll normally just get paid Working Tax Credit as a single person.

Because you have a child, you may be able to get Child Tax Credit as well if:

• you work in the UK
• you have a right to reside in the UK
• you pay National Insurance contributions here
• your child lives in a country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland with your partner or someone else - and depends on you to support them

Usually, you can’t claim for a child who lives outside the EEA or Switzerland. An exception to this is if your partner is a Crown servant posted abroad.

If your partner and child join you in the UK you’ll need to let the Tax Credit Office know within a month. This is because your tax credits payments may change.

Your partner gets benefits in another EEA country or Switzerland

If you’ve got children, and your partner gets benefits paid by another EEA country or Switzerland, these may affect your tax credits.

Some benefits are counted as income, for example benefits paid because of unemployment, but others - like family benefits - aren’t. If your partner does get family benefits paid by another EEA country, it may affect the amount of Child Tax Credit you’re paid.

Your tax credits will stop if you expect to be away for 52 weeks or more.

You may still qualify for tax credits if you go abroad for a short period, for example on holiday or for medical treatment.

If your trip is going to last longer than 8 or 12 weeks, contact the Tax Credit Office within a month. Your tax credits will usually end, unless:

• you get UK benefits or State Pension and you live in another European country with a child
• you work and pay National Insurance contributions in the UK, but your family lives in another European country

Seafarers and offshore workers

If you’re a seafarer or an offshore worker you’ll be able to continue to claim tax credits if you’re outside the UK. But each period that you work outside the UK must be 8 weeks or less.

You’ll be treated as being in the UK as long as you’re inside the UK’s territorial waters - 12 miles out from the low water mark. If you’re working outside this limit you can only be away from home for up to 8 weeks at a time before your tax credit award ends.

You could get tax credits if you're a crown servant posted overseas or you live abroad with your child and get UK benefits or the State Pension.

You’re a Crown servant posted overseas

You may be able to claim tax credits, just as if you were living in the UK. The Tax Credit Office will treat you as being in the UK if any of the following applies:

• you are, or were just before you were posted abroad, ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK
• you’ve had a series of postings abroad, with no breaks in between - and you are or were ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK immediately before the first of those postings
• you were in the UK just before you were posted abroad and the reason you were in the UK was connected to your posting - this can apply to a single posting or to a series of postings

Ordinarily resident

Ordinarily resident means you normally live in the UK, and plan to stay here for the time being. When the Tax Credit Office decides if you’re ordinarily resident in the UK they’ll look at things like:

• where your settled home is
• where your close family live
• why you came to the UK
• if you plan to leave the UK permanently in the next 2 or 3 years

If your partner’s a Crown servant posted overseas

You may be able to claim tax credits if your partner’s a Crown servant posted outside the UK and you:

• live with your partner while they work abroad
• live in the UK while your partner works abroad

You don’t need to be ordinarily resident in the UK during the time you're with your Crown servant partner overseas.

You have a child - and get UK benefits or State Pension

If none of the sections above apply to you, you might be able to claim Child Tax Credit if you and your child live in a European Union (EU) member state and you get State Pension or one of the following benefits:

• Incapacity Benefit
• State Pension
• Widow's Benefit
• Bereavement Benefit
• Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
• contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
• Severe Disablement Allowance

You won’t be able to get Child Tax Credit if you don’t live in an EU member state, unless you (or your partner) are a Crown servant posted abroad.

You may be able to get tax credits if you regularly travel from:

• another country to work in the UK
• the UK to work in another country

Working Tax Credit

You may be able to get Working Tax Credit if you live in:

• an EEA country (including Switzerland) and work in the UK
• the UK and work in an EEA country (including Switzerland)

Child Tax Credit

You and your partner - if you have one - can usually get Child Tax Credit for your children if:

• you work in the UK
• you pay National Insurance as a worker here
• your child lives in an EEA country or in Switzerland
• your child is living with your partner or someone else and they depend on you to support them

Usually, you can’t claim Child Tax Credit for a child who lives outside the EEA or Switzerland.

An exception to this is if you or your partner are a Crown servant posted abroad.

Childcare costs

You can usually claim help for your childcare costs through the childcare element of Working Tax Credit.

To qualify your children must either:

• be in registered or approved childcare in the UK
• be in childcare approved by a Ministry of Defence accreditation scheme abroad - if you’re a Crown servant posted abroad

Usually, if you’re ‘subject to immigration control’ you can’t get tax credits, although there are some exceptions.

When you arrived in the UK your passport may have been stamped. The stamp shows the conditions of your stay in the UK, eg ‘no recourse to public funds’. Public funds include tax credits and most benefits.

Exceptions

You may get tax credits if your partner lives in the UK and is either:

• not subject to an immigration control
• subject to an immigration control but their circumstances are covered by one of the examples below

You’ll still need to meet the other qualifying rules - eg work the right number of hours.

You’ve ‘no recourse to public funds’ and your money from overseas stops for a while

You may get tax credits for up to 42 days if the money you normally get from overseas stops for a short while. But it must be likely that you’ll start getting your overseas money again soon, and you must still have permission to stay in the UK.

You’ve permission to stay in the UK because someone else supports you

You may still be able to get tax credits if someone else is responsible for your maintenance while you’re in the UK. This means that they pay for your upkeep and provide you with somewhere to live. This person is often called your ‘sponsor’, and could be a friend, employer or relative.

All of the following must apply:

• your sponsor has given the Home Office a written statement saying that they’re sponsoring you
• your sponsor has permission to stay in the UK
• you’ve been living permanently in the UK for at least 5 years, either since you came into the UK or since you started being sponsored (whichever date is later)

You may also be able to get tax credits if you’ve been living in the UK for fewer than 5 years, but:

• your sponsor has died
• all your sponsors - if you had more than one - have died

You’re from Algeria, Morocco, San Marino or Tunisia

You can only get Child Tax Credit. You won’t be able to get Working Tax Credit.

You’re from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

You may be able to get Working Tax Credit if you’re a national of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. You will need to be lawfully present in the UK.

You can’t normally get Child Tax Credit. However, you may be able to if you’ve been getting payments for your children through Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.

You’re from Turkey

You can usually get both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit.

To get Working Tax Credit you need to be lawfully present in the UK and a Turkish national.

If you claimed asylum before 5 February 2006

You may still be able to get Child Tax Credit if you received financial support for your children through Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance.