Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme.

The EU Settlement Scheme opened to the public on 30 March 2019 and the deadline for the scheme for those resident in the UK by the end of the transition period was 30 June 2021. However, there is scope to make a late application based on reasonable grounds for missing the deadline. The scheme also remains open to applications for those wishing to apply as Joining Family Members or who want to apply for settled status after having been granted pre-settled status.

The Home Office remains committed to ensuring those who are eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. £25 million of funding has been awarded to a network of now 72 charities and local authorities across the UK, to ensure important information and assistance gets through to those who are hardest to reach, and no one is left behind. These organisations have helped more than 405k vulnerable people to apply to the EUSS already.

The Home Office has delivered a comprehensive range of communications activity, at a cost of £8m, to increase awareness of the EUSS, engaging extensively with a wide range of stakeholder organisations and other government departments, to provide the materials they need to communicate about the Settlement Scheme.

This includes toolkits, assets and information translated into 26 EEA languages, and Welsh, for local authorities, community groups, employers, and the Grant Funded Network, who work closely with vulnerable, hard to reach audiences to provide application support.

Guidance on how to apply and details of the support available to applicants (as it has been throughout the pandemic), is available through the EU Settlement Resolution Centre (SRC), which is open seven days a week to provide assistance over the telephone and by email. The SRC also provides a direct line for organisations working with vulnerable groups. In specific cases the SRC has the capacity to transfer customers to Assisted Digital for more bespoke support.

Further information can also be found at www.gov.uk/help-eu-settlement-scheme.