EU settlement deadline: Charity fears people will miss out

The most applications from any UK local authority to the EU settlement scheme have been made in Newham, east London

A charity helping people to apply for the EU settlement scheme says it is worried people will miss the deadline.

Anyone who entered the UK under EU freedom of movement rules needs to register with the scheme by 30 June.

The Renewal Programme, based in Newham, east London, said there had been a "scrambled rush" of people approaching it for help.

The government has said people can still apply after the deadline if they have a reasonable excuse.

According to the most recent figures, people who applied in London make up more than a third of all applications in the UK.

Some 1.83 million European Economic Area (EEA) citizens and their dependents have applied for settled status in the capital, out of 5.6 million applications across the country.

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Up to the end of March, the borough of Newham had the most of any local authority, with more than 125,000 applications.

However, the Renewal Programme said there had been "a real surge" of people seeking help in the past week, many of whom had not realised they needed to apply because they have lived in the UK for decades.

Mariana Baciu, a Romanian national, was among those who went to the charity after finding out from a friend she needed to get settled status.

She said she had been "scared to apply" because it was so complicated and so approached the Renewal Programme, which helped her to gain settled status.

Mariana Baciu only found out she needed to apply for settled status from a friend

Victoria Gottschalk, the charity's marketing and communications lead, said there had been numerous cases where people had struggled with the process, with numbers increasing as the deadline approached.

"The most concerning thing is we are going to lose [people] who still haven't applied because we weren't given enough time," she said.

She called for the charity to be given "more support and more time" to help people with their applications.

EU nationals living in the UK have until 30 June to apply to stay in the UK. They can apply for:

• Settled status - on offer to anyone who can prove continuous UK residence for five years or more before 31 December 2020

• Pre-settled status - on offer to anyone who has been in the UK for less than five years by the end of 2020. Such applicants can still seek settled status - but there is no guarantee they will get it.

The government has said that anybody who applies by the 30 June deadline will have all their rights protected even if no decision about residential status has been made at that point.

People can also still apply after this date if they have a "reasonable excuse".

A government spokesperson said the Home Office had made up to £22m in funding available for a network of 72 organisations, to contact hard-to-reach groups to help them with their applications.

The support will continue to be funded until "at least September", the spokesperson added.