European judges have been asked to decide whether a family is entitled to benefits from Harrow Council.
The court case has been escalating through the British legal system and has now been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the Court of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice.
It revolves around a Somalian woman who originally came to the UK with her Danish husband and three children. A fourth was born here.
The couple subsequently separated and he returned to Denmark, while she applied for homelessness assistance from the authority.
However, the council determined that she had no right to stay in the United Kingdom under European Union law and so was not entitled to means-tested benefits.
Earlier this year, the Somalian mother appealed to the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court against this decision winning the right to live here and, by extension, receive benefits.
She relied on the legal interpretaton that, although she did not have an express right to reside in the UK, she had an implied right by virtue of the right of her children to have access to education.
But in April this year, Harrow Council appealed the county court judgement at the Court of Appeal in The Strand, central London, which decided the 'issues raised by the appeal were not acte clair and needed to be referred to the ECJ'.
A council spokesman said: "No date is yet set for the ECJ to determine the matter. It is unlikely that the matter will be determined for a considerable length of time.
"We have not had to send documents over to the ECJ and it is highly unlikely that attendance in person by the Harrow legal team will be necessary."
