Social Welfare Appeal G0105

The Applicant moved to Ireland from the UK in 2015 with her husband, a British citizen, and their eight children. She applied for Child Benefit from September 2015.

She was awarded Child Benefit for six of her children from September 2015 to November 2015. This was reviewed on the basis of an allegation that her husband’s self-employment was fake, that he was not therefore exercising EU free movement rights, and that, as a consequence, she was did not satisfy the habitual residence condition in section 246 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 because she was not lawfully in the State as the family member of an EU worker. This decision was upheld on appeal.

Child Benefit was reinstated in November 2016 when her husband entered employment, but again, this was reviewed in March 2018 on the basis that his employment between June 2017 and March 2018 was not genuine. In April 2018, her husband was granted Jobseekers’ Allowance, and it was accepted that he was habitually resident at that time. Her claim for Child Benefit was reinstated from April 2018 onwards, but the Department sought repayment of the Child Benefit which, it said, had been overpaid between June 2017 and March 2018. The Applicant appealed the overpayment decision on the basis that she had, in fact, been habitually resident and that, in any event, her husband’s employment had actually been genuine.