The Guardian 23 June 2021 - by Lisa O'Carroll
A letter from the Home Office confirming that a person has been granted settled status. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
The Home Office has had 5.6m settled status applications from EU citizens including some repeats. Officials revealed a backlog of 400,000, which may take until the end of the summer to process.
To accommodate those who will not have a decision for months, the government will issue a “certificate of application” that all applicants can “rely on as proof to access their right to work or rent”, Foster said. It can also be used to access the NHS. “People will not lose their benefits next week,” Foster told members of a House of Lords committee. It has received 1.5m helpline calls and 500,000 requests for help through an online contact form – an indication of the unprecedented scale of the exercise and the challenges many are facing.
In a briefing to reporters on Tuesday, the Home Office said it would work with individuals to find out their reasons for not applying rather than deport them.
“We’ll set up the support available and we’ll signpost people to make an application, but we do recognise that there may be some people who, after that 28 days, still haven’t been able to make an application, and then I think we would want to work with them to understand why that is the case, and then support them again to make the application,” said an official.
The Home Office confirmed that if after 28 days an individual has not applied to the scheme “they may be liable for enforcement action and will not be eligible for work, benefits or services”.
It added: “Whether such action is taken will be determined in accordance with immigration enforcement policy guidance relating to those in breach of immigration law and following a careful assessment of the individual’s circumstances”.
The flexible approach is not expected to be permanent, however, and under immigration rules EU citizens who make late applications will have to provide “reasonable grounds” for not applying. Among those set to be issued with a 28-day notice are EU citizens unable to evidence their right to work, who might be identified by immigration enforcement teams making checks on employers.
The Home Office said the NHS would continue to be available to those who have certificate of application and “urgent treatment” would never be refused.
It warned that employers or landlords do not have to do retrospective checks on their workers and those who reject future workers or tenants on the grounds that they have not yet been granted official post-Brexit status can be sued on discrimination grounds.
The new rules were brought in as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU and are designed to protect those already living in the UK and British citizens already settled in the EU when Brexit came into force on 1 January this year.
The Home Office said it was concerned that British nationals were facing issues in relation to reciprocal residency rights in some EU countries including Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal and had raised this with the EU ambassador on Tuesday.
Part of the government’s policy is driven by the Brexit pledge to “take back control” of the borders and reduce immigration.