The Home Office has expressed surprise that a large number of last-minute applications to the EU Settlement Scheme on 30 June caused its website to reach “breaking point”.
One immigration lawyer said that the issues with applications on the last day on which people could apply could have serious consequences for many people who still needed to apply and warned that the UK could not “afford another Windrush”.
According to the Home Office today (2 July), more than six million applications have been made to the scheme since its launch in March 2019. However, it has conceded that there is a backlog of about 570,000 cases.
On Wednesday night (30 June) officials tweeted that the EU Settlement Scheme (Euss) was “seeing exceptionally high volumes” of applications. They said: “If you are on the website waiting to apply, please continue. Your applications will be accepted as in time, even if it is submitted after midnight.”
The Home Office told Personnel Today that such was the surge in applications it allowed processing to continue online until 9am on 1 July. It had previously said it would accept late applications where people had “reasonable grounds” for failing to meet the deadline.
Government guidance on late applications stated that “for the time being” late applicants would be given the benefit of the doubt when considering if they had reasonable grounds for missing the deadline.
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Chetal Patel, immigration partner at City law firm Bates Wells, claimed the government had “hugely underestimated how many people have been affected by what has been the biggest change in the UK’s immigration policy in decades”.
She added: “The Home Office should have prepared for this eventuality in advance but instead the goalposts were moved at the last minute which is hugely unfair. Surely surges in applications on the last day and last-minute hitches, including the website crashing, were expected?
“It took the system to reach breaking point for this concession to be announced.”
Patel added that she had concerns over how flexible the Home Office would be when processing ‘late’ applications and questioned whether employers would get the correct results when they used the Home Office’s Employer Checking Service or online Right to Work Check service to check an individual’s right to work in the UK.
She said: “Also, not everyone would have got that message [about continuing to process applications beyond midnight], what about vulnerable people? What about people who didn’t have internet access and were panicking that they’d become illegal? What about people who couldn’t get through to the Home Office EU Settlement Scheme Resolution Centre?”
“There’s a question mark over how the message was disseminated.”
She warned that many people could encounter problems as they entered the world of the hostile environment.
“This could have a disastrous knock-on effect on all aspects of their lives, from renting and opening a bank account through to obtaining employment.”
“We cannot afford to have another Windrush situation.”
Minister for future borders and immigration Kevin Foster said on 2 July: “I’m delighted more than six million applications have been made to our hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme and we have a team of 1,500 caseworkers working on those outstanding.”
He added that people who had missed the deadline could still ask for “help”.
He said: “The safeguards we have built in to protect those who have not yet applied, but who may still be eligible, will mean everybody will be able to get the status they deserve and if you did miss the deadline I would urge you to get in touch today so we can help.”
Article was updated on 2 July to include additional information from the Home Office.
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