UK Competent State - No Overlapping Family Benefits (Info)

When a claimant and / or their partner is either living or working outside the UK a decision is made about which state is competent to pay family benefits.  Family benefits in the UK are Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Child Benefit (ChB).

At this stage it will have been decided that the UK is the competent state responsible for paying family benefits.  For more information follow guidance in Deciding Competency.

For the purpose of this guidance the claims will not include any family benefits paid by  Other Member States (OMS) of European Economic Area (EEA).

• If children are not verified and the claimant has not sent a birth certificate, passport or ID card the child's details must be deleted

• If children are verified you must establish that any childcare charges (CCC) have been approved.  If CCC are not approved, all childcare details must be deleted

• If there are foreign benefits that have not been included on the claim, you must consider whether the benefits should be included as income

• Any benefits paid in foreign currency that are to be included as income must be converted into sterling.  This is done by using the average net rate of exchange for the tax year in which the benefits were paid
  
  Note: You can also use the SEES calculator on Microsoft excel which is an exchange rate calculator

Child Benefit Office (CBO) must be informed that the UK accepts competency for family benefits.

If the OMS is Republic of Ireland (RoI), the relevant authority must be informed that CTC has been awarded, even it no family benefits are in payment from RoI.

If the claimant lives in a member state other than RoI it will not be possible to notify the other country of the award of CTC as unlike the UK and RoI, most OMS do not operate a cenralised benefits scheme.