Deciding Competency (Info)

A cross border / overseas case will appear on the ‘Verification Failures’ Work List as a residency failure. This is because the claimant and / or their partner is either living or working outside the UK.

You must decide whether the UK or Other Member State (OMS) in the European Economic Area( EEA) is the competent state to pay family benefits. Family benefits are Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit(CHB).

Depending upon the information captured from the claim form, you must contact the claimant to ask a series of questions which will help you decide the claim and confirm that any decision made on competency by Child Benefit Office(CBO) is up to date.

When a competency decision has been established you must inform CBO of the decision reached. You must also contact them if you have reason to suspect that a decision they have made is out of date, or if you need advice on any difficult cases.

Under no circumstances should a decision on competency be made without agreement with CBO. This is important to maintain consistency throughout HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If necessary, the case must be referred to the National Contributions Office (NICO) or the International Pensions Centre (IPC) for them to make a final decision.

Providing there is a claim for CHB, these cases will be dealt with by EC Section, CBO on behalf of the International Claims Processing Section (ICPS) who can be contacted at

CBO(GB)
EC Technical Team

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Note: The EC Section in CBO (GB) do not deal with Crown Servants unless the partner is working in an EEA country

CBO(NI)
EC Section

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

If there is no claim for CHB, ICPS may need to contact NICO direct

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)