British grandmother 'treated as asylum seeker' on return from Spain

Lorraine Marsland, 52, moved to Spain with her parents 23 years ago with her parents and when they died she inherited their two bedroom maisonette in Torrevieja, Costa Blanca.

But the home, where she lived with her daughter Lisa, 30, and grandsons Dylan, 10 and Bradley, 4, was repossessed after she discovered her parents had taken out a second mortgage that she could not afford to repay.

The family moved into a rented home but when her daughter lost her job as an assistant in a furniture shop they decided to move back to their home country for a fresh start.

But Lorraine Marsland was shocked when she applied for help starting afresh to be told by a council she had no entitlement to housing benefit despite being a British citizen.

She said: "The letter said I was classified as a person from abroad and I wasn't entitled to housing benefits. They said I was a person from abroad with dependents. I looked up the law that they quoted and it included asylum seekers. I was just stunned. I'm a British citizen, I've got a British passport, I've paid taxes.

"I rang up the Asylum Seekers Association to see if they could help me but they just laughed down the phone at me."