Hundreds of thousands of people can’t get through to the EU settlement scheme helpline – is this ‘success’?

As new data reveals more than half of EU nationals appealing to the Home Office about issues with their status can’t get through to a caseworker, May Bulman asks whether ministers are doing enough to prevent another Windrush-style scandal

New data obtained by campaign group the3million reveals that 1,400,000 calls were made to the EU settlement scheme helpline last year, of which more than half went unanswered (AFP/Getty)

I am delighted to have this opportunity to mark and update the House on the huge success of the EU settlement scheme,” immigration minister Kevin Foster told MPs in June 2021. He went on to boast that more than 5.6 million applications had been received and 5.2 million concluded by the scheme, and claimed that concerns about the government’s willingness to protect Europeans after Brexit had proven “totally unfounded”.

The volume of people who applied for the EU settlement scheme – set up in 2019 to grant EU nationals in the UK and their family members a new form of post-Brexit immigration status – before the deadline of 30 June 2021 was a cause for celebration, especially given there had been warnings that the scheme would fall short of getting three million applicants.

But if Mr Foster thought this meant the job was now over, and that all EU nationals in Britain now had their settled status with no problems, he was very wrong. Many are still struggling to obtain or prove their status.

New data obtained by campaign group the3million via a freedom of information request to the Home Office reveals that 1,400,000 calls were made to the EU settlement scheme helpline (the main point of contact at the Home Office for people having problems with their application or issues proving their status) last year. Of these, more than half (750,000) were unable to get through.

The volume of calls to the helpline is significant given that the scheme is supposed to have closed and ministers have appeared to focus only on the “huge success” of those who have been granted status with no issues. That so many people have been calling for help indicates the process has been far from plain sailing for everyone.

Indeed, The Independent has reported on numerous problems EU nationals are facing in the past few months alone. One woman was refused status despite having lived in Britain for five years with her British husband and children, while in other shocking cases EU nationals are having their applications put on hold for months and sometimes years due to crimes they did not commit.

There are also many people who have obtained settled status, but are having difficulties proving their status or have been misinformed on how they can use it. Earlier this week, The Independent revealed that many settled status holders who have travelled abroad have been blocked from coming back into the UK because they were not told by the Home Office that they required an additional immigration document. In one case, an NHS worker was consequently trapped abroad.

That so many calls aren’t even being answered points to a government that thinks its job is done, when that is far from the case. There have been warnings that the EU settlement scheme could lead to a “Windrush-style scandal” in years to come. If ministers do not address the problems now, that prospect will only become more likely.