With the deadline for applications to the EU Settlement Scheme on 30 June, British Future is urging the government to ensure that people who have yet to apply are not left without status.
Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future, said:
“The end of applications to the EU Settled Status scheme must not be the beginning of a new Windrush scandal. With the deadline set for 30 June, nobody knows how many people have yet to apply.
“The Prime Minister’s personal pledge was that no EU citizen, who was legitimately living here when Britain left the EU, should lose their legal status – and with it the rights to work, rent a home or access healthcare. To honour that, it’s essential that late applications are accepted from all those who are eligible for the scheme – to ensure that people are not left in limbo.
“That 5 million people have successfully applied to the scheme can be counted as a great success. But more than half of them have only been granted ‘pre-settled status’ – so it is important that proper monitoring is in place to make sure people don’t fall between the gaps in the years to come.”
In 2019 British Future published the report Getting it right from the start: Securing the future for EU citizens in the UK, which set out the potential barriers to people successfully securing ‘settled status’ or ‘pre-settled status’ and suggested potential remedies.
