UK breached post-Brexit obligations by leaving EU citizens in limbo, says watchdog

The UK Government failed to fulfil its post-Brexit commitments, leaving many Europeans struggling to work, rent homes, open bank accounts, and access benefits, according to findings from a watchdog investigation.

Approximately 1.7 million digital applications by EU citizens for Certificates of Application, which confirm their rights in the UK, were delayed over a four-year period, the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens' Rights Agreements has said.

Under the Withdrawal Agreement and the EEA EFTA Separation Agreement, the Home Office is required to issue CoAs to applicants immediately.

These certificates serve as proof of rights, including the right to work, rent a property, open a bank account, or access benefits while an application for settled status is being processed.

However, the IMA discovered that an inadequate number of available caseworkers at the Home Office, due to high demand, led to significant delays in issuing these certificates.

EU citizens affected by these delays were left in a “legal limbo” for months, unable to work, leave the UK out of fear they would not be able to return, open a bank account or access Universal Credit.

The IMA's investigation found that, despite the digital EU Settlement Scheme being designed to swiftly validate applications, about 28 per cent of the 1,720,714 EUSS digital applications required caseworker intervention before a CoA was issued between August 2018 and October 2022.

The peak was reached in December 2021 when the IMA reported 87,960 applications without a CoA.

There were also delays in issuing certificates for applications made via paper forms.

This was caused not only by the lack of available caseworkers but also by the shortage of those specifically trained to issue certificates for paper applications.

The watchdog has made recommendations to the Home Office to manage the system of issuing certificates more efficiently.

These recommendations include collecting meaningful data to monitor the time taken to validate applications, adopting a service standard of five working days for certificates to be issued, and monitoring performance against this target.

The IMA has asked the Home Office to publicly release its response to these recommendations within three months.

IMA chief executive Dr Kathryn Chamberlain said: “While we recognise that millions of people have applied to the EU Settlement Scheme, many of whom without issues, we realised that this issue had the potential to severely impact people's lives and their rights.

“That's why we used our powers to conduct an inquiry as we had reasonable grounds to believe that the UK may have failed to comply with the Agreements.

“We will now work with the Home Office to ensure our recommendations are accepted and implemented in full so that citizens can be assured that they will receive a certificate following a valid application to the scheme in a timely manner.”

In response to the IMA's findings, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We take our Withdrawal Agreement obligations to EU citizens very seriously, with the great majority of applicants having their Certificate of Application issued immediately following submission of a valid application.

“We have already made substantial changes to the pace and process of issuing Certificates of Application since the Inquiry took place. We will consider the IMA's recommendations and respond in due course.”

The UK Government continues to hail the EUSS as a “great success”, stating that over 7.2 million applications have been made and 5.6 million people have been granted status as of March 31.