British Citizens and EU Nationals: Social Security Benefits

(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that EU citizens with status and British citizens living in the UK who have received letters from the Department for Work and Pensions stating that they must apply for immigration status, following the UK's departure from the EU, within 28 days or their benefits will stop, do not have their entitlements terminated.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 20th October 2021

The Home Office has worked closely with the DWP to identify individuals in receipt of benefits who may be eligible but have yet to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). In trying to reach as many people as possible, there were a small number of instances where letters were sent to recipients who were naturalised, or dual British and EU citizens, or had other forms of immigration status.

We have taken a range of steps to ensure EU citizens with status and British citizens were removed from our data matching exercise, including re-running the exercise and establishing a dedicated customer service team to manage queries from those who had received a letter and are British or Irish citizens, or already held a valid immigration status. The helpline number was included in the letter sent out in August.

In September, DWP wrote to benefit holders who had still not applied to the EUSS or confirmed their immigration status in the UK with the Home Office, to determine whether they remained entitled to their benefits. Due to some overlap between the sharing of data lists and the DWP mailout, a small number of individuals were contacted by DWP despite having previously contacted the Home Office to confirm their status. Details of the individuals in this small cohort who have verified their status have now been passed to DWP to remove them from their data lists so no further action to suspend or terminate their benefits is taken as a result of not applying to the EUSS.

Individuals wishing to evidence their eligibility for benefits as a result of a letter received from DWP - including those who are British or Irish citizens or already have immigration status - must contact DWP. DWP will carry out further checks, including with the Home Office, and carefully consider evidence before taking any suspension or termination action.

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