Around 141k EU Citizens Living in UK May Have to Return Post-Brexit Benefits They Received Due to Error
Around 141,000 nationals of the European Union Member States who decided to remain in the United Kingdom after Brexit, might have to return to the UK government a considerable amount of money that they received by the authorities, due to error.
The issue has been made known by the Independent Monitoring Authority for Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA), which is a non-departmental public body funded by the government, that works independently, SchengenVisaInfo.com report.
The Authority was warned by the UK Home Office on January 18, 2023, regarding the error, which also clarified that affected were EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applicants who were refused their status between June 27, 2021 and April 19, 2022, but their account continued to show a Certificate of Application, instead of the refused status.
“Ongoing access to a Certificate of Application meant that individuals’ rights under the Withdrawal Agreement were protected pending final determination of any administrative review or appeal, but also means that, after exhausting their appeal rights, potentially 141,000 people continued to enjoy rights to which they were not entitled, including receiving benefit payments,” the IMA has pointed out in a press release on the issue.
The Authority further explains that EU citizens that have been granted pre-settled or settled status between these dates are unaffected, however those who have wrongly benefited due to the error, may have to give back the money their received, though a decision in this regard will soon be announced by the Home Office.
The latter had already updated the statuses of these 141,000 accounts from Certificate of Application to “refused’ status.
It has not been revealed how much money has been wrongly paid.
The EU Settlement Scheme is a system that was created by the UK authorities after the country decided to leave the bloc, for EU citizens that wished to continue staying post-Brexit.
According to Home Office data, as of September 30, 2022, a total of 6,874,700 applications for the EU Settlement Scheme had been lodged, 89 per cent of which in England, five per cent in Scotland, two per cent in Wales and two per cent in Northern Ireland.
Out of them, 1,355,870 are from Romania, 1,171,400 are Polish, and 606,260 are Italian, which are, at the same time, the top nationalities applying to stay in the UK under EUSS.
Regarding the outcome of applications, half of them were granted settled status, 40 per cent pre-settled status, and the remaining ten per cent had other outcomes, including here 375,400 refused applications, 143,550 withdrawn or void applications, and 131,150 invalid applications.
