Following regulatory changes introduced by the Government during the first week of July, European Union residents of Hillingdon (and elsewhere in the UK) who have not yet applied for and/or received so-called 'settled' or 'pre-settled' status, will lose their rights to health care, employment, and education.
Up till now, all EU nationals resident in Britain have had the right to work and access public services in the same way as UK nationals have been able to do in the European Union.
It is thought that the elderly, children, those in poor health and the low-paid will be most affected.
"Even if someone has lived in the UK for decades, they will still be in danger of losing rights to work, to rent and to access many aspects of healthcare, if all their paperwork has not yet been processed," said David Keys, Secretary of Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement, a local campaigning organisation which has been researching the emerging threat to employment and other rights.
Those most at risk of not having completed their documentation (or of not having their paperwork completed for them) include children whose parents had wrongly assumed that because their sons and daughters had been born in Britain (and have always lived here), those children were exempt from the need to acquire settled or pre-settled status. Some foster-carers may also not have realized that they needed to apply on behalf of their foster children.
What's more, some elderly people in care homes will also lose their rights to public services, including health care for chronic conditions – if their care homes did not realize that often complex paperwork needed dealing with.
"Unless the government takes very urgent action to protect people's rights, we are likely to see a Windrush-style scandal affecting tens of thousands of people," he said.
Hillingdon is likely to be particularly badly affected – because it is an important multicultural area.
"Boroughs with large numbers of people potentially at risk of losing their rights include Hillingdon, Harrow, Brent, Ealing, Newham, Hackney, Barnet and Haringey," said Mr Keys.
As of Thursday July 1, EU residents of Hillingdon who have not been granted settled status have been at risk losing their rights. Whilst the Government have said that those with ‘reasonable grounds’ for missing the deadline will not be affected, Mr Keys has said that it is currently unclear what is meant by 'reasonable grounds'. Further, individuals are likely to lose crucial rights to work, rent and access public services while the government processes their post-deadline applications.
"Any members of the public, wishing to contact HHEM, can do so on harrowandhillingdon@europeanmovement.co.uk ", he said.
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